Hatt 


feOM  PaOUKEUINOS  OF  THE  AMKKICAN 


Society,  Ootoekk  21,  1882. 


W O R C E S T E R : 

PRESS  OF  CHARLES  HAMILTON, 
311  Main  Sthket.; 

1 883. 


VZ5o 


THE 


OLMECAS  AND  THE  TDLTECAS, 


A STUDY  IN  EARLY  MEXICAN  ETHNOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


PHILIPP  J.  J.  VALE:NT1NI,  Pii.D. 


(Tk.^nslatkd  fuom  the  German  by  Stephen  Salisbury,  Jr.) 


With  M Map  and  two  Chits. 


THE  OLMECAS  AND  THE  TULTECAS. 


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THE 

OLMECAS  AND  THE  TULTEOAS. 


A STUDY  IN  EARLY  MEXICAN  ETHNOLOGY  AND  HISTORY, 


J by 

■"iy 

PHILIPP  jr  J.  VALENTINI,  Ph.D. 


(Translated  from  the  German  by  Stephen  Salisbury,  Jr.) 


With  a Map  and  two  Cuts. 


FBOM  PBOOKBDINQS  of  THK  AMF.BICAN  ANTIQDABtAN  SOCIETY,  OOTOBEB  21,  1882. 


WORCESTER : 

PRESS  OF  CHARLES  HAMILTON, 
311  Main  Street. 

1883. 


Peinem  Jreunde 
gmtt  Stephen  gt., 

Jem  eifeigen  Jordcrer  im  (^thitit  der  Pexicaniisichett 
g^rchaeologie,  gewidmelft  vom 


lertoifiier* 


THE  OLMECAS  AND  THE  TDETECAS  : 


A STUDY  IN  EARLY  MEXICAN  ETHNOLOGY  AND  HISTORY. 


Sixty  years  ago  the  early  history  of  the  people  of  the  Nile  and  the 
Euphrates  was  still  shrouded  in  deep  obscurity.  To-day  the  veil  is 
rent.  We  are  now  taught  of  their  existence  and  achievements  thou- 
sands of  years  before  the  period  of  written  history.  Active  scientific 
research  has  won  this  victory. 

Interest  has  not  been  wanting,  nor  has  labor  been  spared,  to  throw  a 
similar  light  upon  the  condition  and  history  of  the  early  people  that 
inhabited  the  table-lands  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.  For  more 
than  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  students  have  been  endeavoring  to 
solve  the  mysterious  prol;lem,  and  we  might  therefore  reasonably  suppose 
that  the  labor  would  not  have  been  wholly  in  vain.  Unfortunately, 
however,  this  seems  to  be  the  fact.  The  steps  taken  in  this  direction 
have  been  slow  and  somewhat  discouraging,  and  it  is  almost  to  be 
feared,  that  despite  the  activity  which  has  been  displayed  during  the  last 
ten  years  in  this  ancient  province  of  research,  the  wished-for  goal  may 
never  be  reached.  The  reasons  must  be  strong,  indeed,  to  lead  us  to  so 
melancholy  a conclusion.  In  the  following  pages  we  shall  endeavor  to 
bring  them  before  our  readers. 

If  we  consider  the  historical  material  offered  to  the  investigator,  it  is 
as  regards  form  almost  identical  in  both  Hemispheres.  In  each  the 
written  record,  either  modified  or  amplified  by  later  writers,  forms  the 
main  substance : in  each  also  monumental  inscriptions  of  various  de- 
signs await  translation  or  decipherment.  But  a difference  exists  in  the 
character  of  the  material  which  facilitates  the  work  of  the  student  of 
Eastern  history  and  perplexes  him  in  the  study  of  Western  archaeology. 
Ir,  is  the  ethnic  discrepancy  that  causes  the  embarassment.  The 
ancient  East  has  always  been  looked  upon  as  our  historic  fatherland,  and 
is  so  regarded  to-day  with  more  certainty  than  ever  before.  The  Euro- 
pean, to  us,  is  only  a variously  transformed  exponent  of  generations, 
whose  ancestry  reaches  back  into  Asia,  for  thousands  of  years.  In  this 
long  course  of  time,  it  was  Greece,  Rome,  and  Judaea,  that  in  written 
records  and  in  a language  quite  familiar  to  the  student  have  left  to  us  a 
multitude  of  dates  disclosing  the  process  and  vicissitudes  of  our 


aunihilated,  nor  can  it  be  treated  with  indifference.  It  is  true  that  from 
its  deficiencies  and  confusedness,  the  literature  can  offer  us  but  little  of 
certainty,  but  s^till  the  material  is  too  voluminous  and  important  to 
abandon  it  entirely  for  these  reasons. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  us  that  the  right  way  to  treat  these  matters 
should  be  to  moderate  our  expectations,  and  to  no  longer  demand  of 
those  sculptures  a revelation  of  secrets  that  they  are  unable  to  yield, 
since  they  contain  nothing  of  the  sort.  We  should  thereby  lose  a 
great  incentive  to  investigation,  but  one  very  liable  to  lead  us  astray. 
If  the  mateiials  were  consulted  solely  on  account  of  their  own  intrinsic 
value,  they  would  win  just  as  much  in  solidity  as  they  had  lost  in 
exciting  interest.  Consulting  the  materials  in  this  way,  our  first  aim 
should  be  to  fix  and  determine  the  main  epochs,  a task  that  would 
be  comparatively  easy,  and  for  the  moment  omit  entirely  the  other 
minute  chronological  details.  We  should  next  enquire  what  is  to  be 
understood  by  the  names  frequently  met  with  of  the  two  most  ancient 
nations,  the  Olmecas  and  the  Tultecas — names  so  often  used  but  so 
meaningless;  and  we  should  ascertain  which  of  these  two  nations  was 
the  older,  or  whether  both  of  them  were  contemporaneous  and  lived 
and  acted  side  by  side;  which  part  of  the  country  each  of  them 
inhabited;  whether  in  the  course  of  time  their  frontiers  became 
changed  ; whether  in  their  midst  other  mixed  nationalities  sprang  up  to 
form  independent  communities;  whether  the  Olmecas  and  Tultecas 
were  tribes  which  immigrated  to  Mexican  soil,  or  whether  they  were 
aborigines  with  a marked  difference  between  them  as  to  race  and 
language.  If  investigation  should  be  carried  on  in  this  or  a similar 
manner,  the  probable  consequence  would  be  that  instead  of  shadowy 
nations  and  empires,  which  up  to  the  present  time  have  been  prominent 
in  historiography  only  as  an  expedient  for  designating  certain  nations 
once  having  an  existence  not  hitherto  understood,  we  should  have 
condensed  them  into  a more  tangible  historical  body.  A most  oppressive 
nomenclature  would  thus  be  eliminated,  and  the  history  of  these  nations 
would  be  made  more  conformable  to  truth  and  more  attractive  for  study 
and  investigation. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  give  a complete  and  exhaustive 
essay  upon  this  subject,  for  it  would  require  more  time,  more  help  from 
others  and  more  talent  than  he  has  at  command.  He  will  in  the  follow- 
ing essay  merely  endeavor  to  ascertain  what  conclusions  we  are  entitled 
to  draw  from  the  facts  transmitted  to  us  by  the  earliest  and  most 
reliable  Spanish  chroniclers,  and  with  these  points  established,  to 
investigate  in  what  directions  the  wave  of  civilization,  originating 
suddenly  on  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  spread  over  the  Western 
and  Southern  part  of  the  interior;  what  active  or  passive  part  was 
taken  by  the  various  tribes  which  appeared  under  distinct  names,  though 
certainly  very  vaguely  described  up  to  that  time,  and  into  what  chrono- 
logical frame  this  historical  picture  ought  to  be  placed. 


7 


and  could  be  compared  with  others,  uncertain  and  contradictory  results 
were  reached.  Whei’^ve/  the  Spanish  investigator  labored  he  found 
foreign  material  and  groped  in  darkness.  The  names  of  persons  and 
places  had  a foreign 'sound.  Between  the  conqueror  and  the  conquered 
all  sympathy  of  races,  all  ethnic  consanguinity  was  wanting,  and  this 
absence  prevented  any  sure  insight  into  the  historical  logic  of  events. 
The  result  is  that  a great  mass  of  dates  have  lieen  transmitted  to  us 
without  proper  connection,  and  the  numberless  gaps  can  not  be  filled. 

Except  for  the  wonderful  similarity  which  eai'ly  Mexican  civilization 
bears  to  that  of  the  ancient  nations  of  the  Eastern  Hemisphere,  only  a 
small  fraction  of  the  workers,  who  in  past  and  present  times  have  so 
willingly  given  themselves  to  this  study,  could  have  been  induced  to 
undertake  the  labor.  The  theory  has  been  advanced  that  the  natives 
must  be  considered  as  a branch  of  the  human  family,  which,  coming 
from  the  far  East,  and  having  been  driven  out  of  its  course,  has  finally 
settled  in  these  parts ; and,  indeed,  there  are  many  circumstances  on 
which  to  base  the  theory.  It  has  been  the  highest  aim  of  the  investi- 
gator to  firmly  establish  this  theory  by  positive  and  well-founded  proofs, 
and  both  foolish  and  ingenious  arguments  have  been  brought  forward 
for  that  purpose.  An  immense  literature,  grown  up  from  the  time  of 
the  conquest  and  continued  till  our  day,  bears  testimony  to  the  restless 
eflfort  to  unearth  the  secret.  The  hope  seemed  to  dawn  some  time  ago, 
on  the  discovery  of  the  Landa  Alphabet,  that  by  help  of  the  key  thus 
discovered  a way  might  be  found  to  decipher  the  stone  hieroglyphics. 
And,  indeed,  the  most  authentic  way  to  learn  a nation’s  early  history 
is  to  glean  it  from  such  monuments  as  are  covered  with  the  records 
of  events  that  were  sculptured  by  contemporaries.  Therefore  the 
hope  arose  of  filling  out  the  large  gaps  of  the  written  history,  and,  if 
not  obtaining  direct  information,  at  least  of  arriving  at  reasonable 
conclusions  concerning  the  descent  of  a people,  that  had  been  brought  to 
this  new  world  and  afterwards  had  been  lost  sight  of.  But  even  this 
cheering  hope  has  been  lost  to  us,  and  the  so-called  Landa  Key  has 
proved  to  be  an  ingenious  contrivance  of  the  Spanish  missionaries,  who 
wished  to  aid  the  natives  in  learning  the  sentences  of  the  catechism  by 
means  of  a picture-writing,  which  had  formerly  been  quite  familiar  to 
them.  So  ardent  was  the  desire  to  find  out  this  great  secret,  that  a few 
modern  students  forgot  entirely,  that  the  question  whether  the  paintings 
and  sculptures  were  to  be  explained  phonetically  or  ideographically  had 
been  answered,  nay  practically  solved,  beyond  all  doubt,  by  the  natives 
themselves  immediately  after  the  conquest,  in  favor  of  the  latter  method. 

With  such  lamentable  prospects  for  final  success  it  might  seem 
advisable  to  bid  a formal  farewell  to  investigations  in  the  prehistoric 
history  of  Mexico,  rather  than  to  trouble  ourselves  any  more  about  it, 
without  obtaining  corresponding  progress  or  profit.  But  it  is  easier  to 
think  and  to  say  this  than  to  follow  the  advice.  A literature  composed 
of  thousands  of  volumes  collected  in  the  course  of  centuries  can  not  be 


political  development.  More  or  less  we  have  always  been  aware  of  the 
revolutions  that  had  taken  place  in  the  far  East  before  the  first  Olympiad, 
what  nations  were  foremost  and  had  succeeded  each  other  in  the  task 
of  founding  and  destroying  great  empires,  what  grand  deeds  we  should 
connect  with  the  names  of  certain  leaders  and  kings;  and  although 
much  new  material  has  been  brought  to  light  by  finding  keys  to  dead 
and  lost  languages,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  by  means  of  this  discovery 
we  merely  obtained  richer  details,  and  in  addition  the  very  welcome 
assistance  of  a more  accurate  chronology.  These  helps,  however,  only 
interweave  themselves  into  the  substance  of  dates  and  events  with 
which  we  were  already  acquainted.  Therefore,  since  through  the 
industry  of  ancient  historians  the  bridge  was  laid  that  leads  us  into  the 
first  stages  of  our  historic  genesis,  and  since  our  resources  for  research 
and  study  are  so  competent  and  reliable,  it  was  but  natural  that  the 
labor  undertaken  with  the  material  for  Indo-European  history  should 
have  been  crowned  with  success. 

The  case  is  far  difierent  in  regard  to  matters  pertaining  to  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  and  how  difficult  are  the  duties  of  the  investigator 
into  American  prehistory!  When  the  Spaniards  came  to  this  continent 
they  had  no  idea  of  its  existence  and  isolation,  nor  of  the  multitude  of 
difierent  nations  collected  together  here,  nor  of  the  peculiar  state  of 
civilization  that  some  of  them  had  i cached.  Likewise  the  natives  of  this 
great  Western  Hemisphere  had  lived  in  ignorance  of  an  Eastern 
Continent.  A mass  of  their  historical  traditions,  reaching  back  into 
untold  centuries,  indeed  existed,  and  were  immediately  collected  by  the 
missionaries  from  the  lips  of  the  natives  themselves.  But  what  correct 
estimation,  what  thorough  understanding  of  the  dates  and  the  materials 
gathered  Cf*uld  be  expected  from  the  minds  of  hearers  so  unprepared  as 
the  Spanish  conquerors  were  ? We  must  not  forget  that  these  researches 
were  made  either  with  the  help  of  inexperienced  interpreters  or  by  the 
missionaries  themselves,  who  were  and  remained  but  imperfect  scholars 
in  this  new  language  to  be  used  in  their  intercourse  with  the  natives. 
Not  only  the  whole  structure  of  the  language  difi*ered  from  iheirs,  but 
even  the  moile  of  expression  puzzled  them.  Emiuiries  for  actual  proofs 
were  answered  by  a reference  to  songs,  whose  heroic  phraseology 
obscured  the  original  statement  of  the  events  themselves,  and  when  the 
painted  annals  were  referred  to,  no  guarantee  for  correct  interpretation 
was  furnished  beyond  the  good  faith  and  the  doubtful  learning  of  the 
native  interpreters.  A ready-made  summary  of  historical  materials  did 
not  exist.  Each  tribe  cared  only  to  preserve  its  own  interesting  events. 
Many  tribes  in  their  long  migrations  had  lost  their  records,  or  they  had 
been  seized  by  victorious  tribes  and  destroyed.  Experiments  to  recon- 
struct the  records  from  memor}"  must  necessarily  have  been  defective. 
They  invited  fabrications,  and  either  little  attention  was  given  to  the 
important  matter  of  designating  the  exact  date  of  an  event,  or  it  was 
given  only  in  round  numbers,  so  that  when  computations  were  made 


9 


In  conformity  to  the  limited  space  which  the  Publishing  Committee 
of  the  Society  allows  to  contributors,  and  mindful  of  the  restriction 
that  the  writer  has  imposed  on  himself  to  make  use  of  the'  early 
Spanish  authorities  exclusively,  he  hopes  he  will  not  be  considered 
lacking  in  literary  courtesy,  if  he  does  not  allude  to  the  many  and 
important  labors  of  his  predecessors. 

From  the  written  testimony  before  us,  and  from  other  corroborating 
circumstances,  we  find  that  the  period  in  which  dates  can  be  given  to 
the  early  history  of  Mexico  is  about  thirteen  hundred  years.  All  that 
we  know  of  this  history  will  fall  between  the  middle  of  the  third  and 
the  sixteenth  century,  or  more  exactly  between  the  years  232  and  1521 
of  the  Christian  Era.  The  latter  date  rests  on  good  authority : it  was 
the  year  of  the  Spanish  Conquest.  The  first  and  earlier  date  is  con- 
structed from  an  examination  of  the  chronological  hieroglyphics  on  the 
Calendar  Stone.  Its  credibility  is  supported  by  the  date  245  A.  D., 
which  we  obtain  from  the  Codex  Chimalpopoca,^  and  from  the  Maya 
Katunes,  which  gives  us  the  year  242  A.  D.^ 

^The  successful  collector  and  ardent  student  of  American  History, 
M.  I’Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  during  his  residence  in  Mexico,  had 
access  to  the  archives  of  the  College  of  San  Gregorio  in  that  city.  In 
the  library  of  this  convent  he  found  an  ancient  MS.,  there  filed  under 
the  title  : “ History  of  the  Kingdoms  of  Colhuacan  and  Mexico.”  It  was 
written  in  the  Nahuatl  language,  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  pro- 
fessor, Galicia  Chimalpopoca,  he  translated  it  into  the  Spanish  language. 
This  translation  has  not  yet  appeared  in  print.  But  M.  Brasseur  makes 
use  of  its  contents  very  fully  in  his  publications,  and  he  informs  us 
(see  Historic  des  nat.  civil,  du  Mexique,  Vol.  I.,  page  70)  that  the  title- 
page  of  the  above-named  manuscript  bears  an  inscription  of  the  follow- 
ing tenor  : “ (I  times  4 centuries,  plus  1 century,  plus  13  years,  to-day  the 
22d  of  May,  1558.”  The  anonymous  author  by  those  terms  appears  to 
declare  that  the  contents  of  this  work  embrace  a certain  historical 
period  and  such  a number  of  years  as  would  result  from  the  solution  of 
his  arithmetical  proposition.  Thus  M.  Brasseur  understood  it,  and  we 
agree  with  him.  We  must,  however,  differ  from  him  in  his  adoption 
of  a period  of  100  years  for  a Nahuatl  century.  From  a text  writ- 
ten by  an  Indian  chronicler,  in  his  native  language,  and  treating  of 
Indian  history  and  chronology,  we  can  not  help  inferring  that  a Nahuatl 
century  must  be  computed  with  52  years,  which  is  the  great  Mexican 
cycle.  The  Spaniards,  indeed,  always  render  the  word  for  the  Mexican 
cycle  with  that  of  siglo,  century.  Misled  by  this  circumstance,  M. 
Brasseur  sums  up  the  following  statement:  6x400-|-100+13  years,  22d 
of  May,  1558,  and  thereby  arrives  at  the  date  of  the  beginning  of  the 
history  of  Colhuacan  and  Mexico  in  the  year  955  before  Christ.  Through 
the  introduction,  however,  of  the  cyclical  figure  52  into  this  account, 
the  correct  sum  of  1313  years  thus  gained,  and  subtracted  from  the  date 
of  1558  A.  D.,  would  carry  us  back  not  farther  than  to  the  year  245 
A.  D.  This  year  stands  under  the  date  of  1 Calli  (Mexican  chronology), 
which  is  only  13  years,  or  one  quarter  of  a cycle  (tlapilli)  later  than  the 
date  which  we  found  upon  the  disk  of  the  Calendar  Stone  (232  A.  D., 
1 Tecpatl).  See  “The  Mexican  Calendar  Stone,”  Proceedings  of  Am. 
Ant.  Society,  Worcester,  Mass.,  April  24,  1878. 

^The  Katunes  of  Maya  History,  Proceedings  of  Am.  Ant.  Society, 
Worcester,  Mass.,  Oct.’  21,  1879. 

2 


10 


This  entire  period  of  about  thirteen  hundred  years  can  naturally  be 
divided  into  two  distinct  epochs.  The  one  is  that  from  232-1064  A.  D., 
which  we  may  call  the  epoch  of  the  Olmecas  and  Tultecas;  the  other 
from  1064-1321,  the  epoch  of  the  Chichimecas.  This  latter  epoch  we 
shall  leave  entirely  out  of  consideration.  Its  events  are  well  authenti- 
cated, and  a comparatively  rich  material  is  at  the  disposal  of  the 
historian.  Not  so,  however,  with  the  epoch  that  belonged  to  the 
Olmecas  and  the  Tultecas,  and  which  we  intend  to  make  the  subject  of 
our  discussion. 

Like  the  early  epochs  of  all  nations,  this  also  is  full  of  uncertainties. 
No  authentic  record  exists  from  which  we  may  read  a full  account  of  such 
events  as  occurred  during  those  eight  centuries,  and  thereby  gain  an 
approximate  idea  of  the  political  and  social  condition  then  existing  on 
the  table  lands  of  Mexico.  Tradition,  and  a very  slender  one  at  best, 
by  a few  half-obliterated  pencil  strokes,  and  to  the  bewilderment  of 
posterity,  has  kept  alive  the  memory  of  those  two  nations  to  whose 
civilizing  energy  has  been  ascribed  the  clearing  of  the  virgin  forests,  in 
order  to  make  room  for  sumptuous  temples  and  palaces.  On  reviewing 
the  material,  we  have  found  this  tradition  best  preserved  by  Sahagnn  and 
Torquemada.  The  first,  as  will  be  shown  hereafter,  dealt  in  original 
historical  research,  and  the  latter  was  a very  circumspect  compiler.  We 
can  not  pass  over  a third  writer,  Alva  de  Ixtlilxochitl,  whom  it  has  been 
the  custom  to  slight.  Like  Sahagun  he  has  copied  directly  from  the 
painted  annals,  and  his  reports,  though  open  to  criticism,  must  be 
respected.  Here  and  there  linguistics  and  topography  will  help  us  in 
securing  important  tints,  which  have  been  fading  from  the  musty  canvas 
of  traditional  lore.  It  is  by  no  means  our  ambition  to  write  the  pages  of 
a history  of  eight  centuries  which  has  been  irredeemably  lost,  or  to  make 
a bold  attempt  to  reconstruct  it  on  the  tottering  pedestal  of  fragmentary 
material.  W e wish  only  to  eliminate  a variety  of  errors,  which  have  become 
prevalent  concerning  those  ancient  civilizers,  through  the  fantastic  com- 
positions of  various  writers.  We  cherish  the  hope  that  by  emphasizing 
certain  features,  whose  recognition  has  been  neglected,  and  which  to  us 
appear  of  paramount  value,  we  may  arrive  at  a better  understanding  of 
the  particular  direction  and  course  which  those  nations  took  in  occupy- 
ing and  civilizing  the  large  Mexican  isthmus. 

One  great  error,  which  we  shall  try  to  correct,  has  been  committed 
by  modern  writers  in  following  too  verbally  the  opinion  formed  and 
propagated  by  the  Spanish  chroniclers  with  regard  to  the  chronological 
relation  in  which  the  Olmecas  stood  to  the  Tultecas.  We  found  the 
former  always  considered  as  having  been  antecedent  to  the  latter. 
The  Olmecas  are  always  termed  “ the  first  possessors  of  this  country 
of  New  Spain.”  This  expression  has  given  rise  to  the  opinion  that  the 
Olmecas  were  the  very  pioneers  of  civilization  on  the  Mexican  isthmus. 
Whether  they  were  indigenous  or  immigrants  from  abroad  was  left 
in  obscurity,  but  it  was  assumed  as  a fact  that  in  later  times  a 


11 


powerful  and  highly  cultured  tribe,  the  Tultecas,  coming  from  the 
North,  had  invaded  their  country,  seized  upon  their  possessions,  and 
^fi’aced  their  existence  to  such  a degree  as  to  erect  thereon  a large 
empire,  embracing  Mexico  and  the  whole  of  Central  America.  These 
are  opinions  and  statements  for  which  no  evidence  appears  in  recorded 
tradition,  and  can  not  be  accepted  to  such  a broad  extent.  Based  upon 
reasons  to  be  explained  in  the  following  pages,  we  are  compelled  to 
modify  such  views  considerably.  It  will  be  shown  that  although 
Olmecas  and  Tultecas  present  themselves  as  two  different  nations  in 
later  historical  times,  yet  from  the  outset  they  were  of  the  same  stock, 
the  same  creed,  culture  and  training,  aud'thatwhen  they  set  out  in  their 
work  they  started  from  the  same  place.  Yet  while  one  branch,  which 
later  appears  under  the  name  of  Olmecas,  directed  their  expeditionary 
steps  toward  the  South  and  their  efforts  appear  to  have  met  with  compara- 
tive success,  another  branch  of  the  main  body,  the  later  Tultecas,  made 
the  far  North-west  and  its  inhabitants,  the  savage  Chichimecas,  the 
province  of  their  colonization.  It  was  only  after  three  centuries 
that  a few  families  of  the  old  stock — the  lost  brothers’  tribe — 
being  compelled  to  quit  those  Northern  abodes  and  to  wander 
South,  succeeded  in  joining  the  Olmecas  on  the  ancient  spot  of 
separation.  Both  were  changed,  of  course,  but  not  to  such  a degree  as  to 
fail  in  recognizing  their  common  descent.  The  Tultecas  did  not  invade 
the  territory  of  the  Olmecas  by  force ; they  settled  on  a ground  then  wild 
and  open  to  colonization,  on  the  border  of  the  Tezcucan  lagunas.  They 
never  founded  an  empire,  never  aimed  at  nor  attained  a supremacy  over 
the  Olmecas.  Both  were  pacific  and  contemporaneous  co-workers  in 
their  perhaps  unconscious  task  of  civilization,  during  the  long  period 
from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  century. 

These  are  the  preliminary  outlines,  and  we  shall  try  to  explain  only 
the  most  interesting  details  of  the  story  in  the  discussion  which  follows. 

Mexican  prehistory  begins  with  the  curious  record,  that  a body  of 
bold  invaders  made  its  appearance  in  the  mountains  of  Tlascala  and  on 
the  sources  of  the  river  Atoyac,  where  they  had  a hostile  encounter 
with  giants.  The  name  of  these  giants  is  given  as  the  Quiname  or 
Quinametin.  They  are  described  as  a band  of  ruffians  addicted  to  all 
kinds  of  vices.  ^ The  strangers,  falling  an  easy  prey  to  these  fellows,  were 
made  slaves,  and  were  subjected  to  the  lowest  drudgery.  But  at  a feast 
the  servants  placed  before  their  masters  a beverage  so  sweet  that  they 
became  intoxicated,  and  all  of  them  were  then  massacred.  So  runs  the 

^Fern.  de  Alva  IxtUlxochitl,  Historia  Chichimeca,  in  Kingsborough 
Coll.,  Vol.  IX.,  pages  197  and  205,  and  id.  Relaciones  Historicas,page  322. 
Veytia,  in  Kingsb.  Coll.,  Vol.  VIII.,  page  179.  Las  Casas,  Hist.  Apolo- 
getica,  Tom.  I.,  Cap.  175.  Geronimo  de  Mendieta,  Hist.  Ecceles'^  (Icazbal- 
ceta,  Mex.,  1870),  page  96.  Oviedo,  Vol.  III.,  page  539.  Diego  de  Duran, 
Hist.  Ant.  de  1.  N.  Esp.,  Tom.  I.,  Cap.  1,  2.  Torquemada,  Hist.  Ind., 
Lib.  I.,  Cap.  13,  14.  God.  Vaticanus,  Kingsb.  Coll.,  Vol.  V.,  page  165, 
Spieg.  d.  1.  tavola  VII. 


12 


story  when  divested  of  the  manifold  additions  which  later  writers  had 
probably  added.  That  this  account  has  been  preserved  and  has  not 
shared  the  fate  of  many  others  of  the  greatest  importance,  which  have 
been  forgotten,  may  be  explained  as  follows  : The  claim  of  conquest  by 
their  forefathers  was  one  of  the  first  victorious  acts  of  a conquering 
people,  and  the  generations  which  followed  saw  in  it  the  oldest  legiti- 
mate title  to  the  possession  of  the  country  which  they  had  acquired. 
Through  this  introduction  of  the  sweet  liquor  cup  as  a means  of  conquest, 
the  story  receives  a peculiar  American  tinge.  One  is  involuntarily 
reminded  of  the  fact  that  cheating  the  indigenous  redskin  of  his  hunting 
grounds  by  ottering  him  the  sweet  bowl  is  not  of  recent  invention  on  this 
hemisphere.  It  seems  to  stand  on  record  as  a time-honored  practical 
device.  If  we  incline  to  accept  as  true  this  part  of  the  story,  we  can  not 
say  as  much  of  the  statement  that  the  conquerors  met  with  a race  of 
giants  in  the  highlands.  Still,  this  fable  seems  to  have  been  fully 
believed  by  the  natives,  and  also  later  on  by  the  Spaniards.  Torquemada,. 
about  the  year  1605,  mentions  the  event,  and  allows  himself  to  speak 
with  great  latitude  about  the  diflferent  races  of  giants  in  antiquity,  and 
we  may  read  in  Bernal  Diez*  of  the  impression  made  upon  him  when  the 
inhabitants  of  Cholula  laid  a thigh-bone  before  him,  which  as  he 
measured  it  with  his  body  was  exactly  his  own  height.  We  know 
sufficiently  well  what  to  think  of  such  giants,  in  our  own  times,  and  that 
this  metaphor  is  only  an  exaggerated  mode  of  native  expression. 
The  invader,  feeling  himself  unsafe  in  the  new  country,  either  tries  to 
find  an  excuse  for  his  fear,  or  after  he  becomes  a victor  he  thus  seeks  to 
give  a high  sounding  proof  of  his  owm  valor. 

These  giants  of  the  Atoyac  river  were  called  by  some  Qiiiname,  by 
others  Quinametin.  An  old  adage  says  that  much  lies  in  a name.  The 
truth  of  this  proverb  finds  striking  confirmation  in  many  Mexican  proper 
names,  whose  analysis  contains  an  abundance  of  hints,  without  attention 
to  which,  difficult  questions  would  have  remained  unanswered.  For 
example,  if  we  take  the  word  Quiname  we  recognize  in  its  last  syllable 
me,  the  plural  form  of  a Nahuatl  noun,  which  in  the  singular  must  have 
been  Quinatl.  If  we  take  the  second  version  of  the  word  Quinametin, 

'^Bernal  Diez,  Hist,  verdadera,  d.  1.  Conq.,  d.  1.  N.  Esp.,  Cap.  78 : ‘Clud 
they  (the  Tlaxcallans)  said  that  their  ancestors  had  told  them,  that  in  times 
past  there  lived  amongst  them  in  settlements,  men  and  women  of  great 
size,  Avith  huge  bones ; and  as  they  were  Avicked  and  of  evil  disposition, 
they  fought  against  them  and  killed  them,  and  those  aa’Iio  Avere  left,  died 
out.  And  that  Ave  might  see  AAdiat  stature  they  Avere  of,  they  brought  a 
bone  of  one  of  them,  and  it  Avas  A’ery  big,  and  its  height  AA^as  that  of  a 
man  of  reasonable  stature ; it  Avas  a thigh  bone,  and  I,  Bernal  Diez, 
measured  myself  against  it,  and  it  Avas  as  tall  as  I am,  aa’Iio  am  a man  of 
reasonable  stature ; and  the}’’  brought  other  pieces  of  bones  like  the  first, 
but  they  Avere  already  rott-.d  through  by  the  earth,  and  Ave  Avere  all 
amazed  to  see  those  bones,  and  held  that  for  certain  that  there  had  been 
giants  in  that  land ; and  our  captain  Cort6s  said  to  us,  that  it  Avould  be 
Avell  to  send  the  great  bone  to  Castile  that  his  Majesty  might  see  it ; and 
so  Ave  sent  it  by  the  first  messengers  Avho  Avent.” 


13 


. t 


■we  find  in  the  last  syllable  an  additional  Nahuatl  piural,  which 
belongs  to  a second  grammatical  series  of  nouns.'  But  what  was  the 
meaning  in  the  Nahnatl  language  of  the  nouns  quinatl  or  quiname  we  can 
not  find  in  the  Dictionary,  even  if  we  look  for  the  initial  letters  under  g,  or 
fi,  so  nearly  related  to  it..  Remembering,  however,  the  fact  that  Nahuatl 
and  Maya  are  border  languages,  and  that  the  theatre  of  the  event  chances 
to  be  located  on  the  ancient  border  line  of  the  two  nations,  the  inference  is 
obvious  that  the  word  belongs  to  the  Maya  idiom.  It  is  therefore  an 
agreeable  discovery  to  find  the  word  ninac  in  one  of  the  oldest  Maya 
dialects,  in  the  Mame^  with  the  meaning  oH  man  ovmankind,  and  again  to 
find  the  same  form  in  the  Quiche  dialect,  while  in  the  Maya  proper  it  is 
uinic,  and  in  the  Huasteca  From  this  explanation,  it  will  not  be 

hazarding  too  much  to  conclude  that  the  Nahuatl  tribes  coming  from  the 
North,  found  on  the  Atoyac  river  a race  of  men  who  called  themselves 
ninac — man;  and  a race,  therefore,  doubtless  of  Maya  origin.  The 
terminology  itself  is  explicit  in  the  highest  degree,  and  recurs  in 
numberless  instances  among  the  primitive  tribes  of  America.  In  this 
ease  the  fact  itself  is  of  great  interest.  The  primitive  Maya  word  iiinic, 
eombining  with  forms  taken  from  the  Nahuatl  language,  gives  a certain 
sort  of  allusion  to  the  first  meeting  of  the  two  races.  We  may  go  even 
still  further  and  take  it  as  an  evidence  that  Maya,  at  that  remote  epoch, 
was  spoken  on  the  plateau  of  Tlascala,  from  which  to-day,  however,  it 
has  entirely  disappeared. 

Should  our  treatment  of  this  topic  find  acceptance  and  give  an  inci- 
dental explanation  to  a presumably  historical  event,  we  are  compelled  to 
dislodge  it  from  the  place  of  honor  which  it  has  occupied  by  having 
hitherto  figured  at  the  head  of  early  Mexican  history.  The  Tultecas, 
who  were  the  undisputed  importers  of  the  Nahuatl  language,  made  their 
appearance  not  earlier  than  in  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  on  the 
plateaux  of  Anahuac,  and  the  three  preceding  centuries,  as  will  be  shown, 
are  not  devoid  of  data  showing  a steady  and  previous  conquest  of  the 
Maya  aborigines  by  another  set  of  invading  foreigners,  the  so-called 
Olmecfis.  As  their  civilizing  influence  was  not  only  the  primitive  but 
was  also  the  most  powerful,  we  shall  place  them  at  the  head  of  the  list. 

THE  OLMECAS. 

Neither  Cortes  nor  any  of  his  contemporaneous  conquerors  make 


'See  Carochi,  Arte  Mexicana,  Mexico,  1759,  page  7,  and  Andre  de 
Olmos,  1547,  re-edited  by  Simeon  (Remi)  Paris,  1875,  page  35. 

^Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton,  of  Philadelphia,  who  has  purchased  the  Berendt 
collection  of  ancient  Maya  literature,  was  so  kind  as  to  furnish  us  with 
this  information,  taken  from  the  Maya  vocabularies,  at  our  request. 
Besides,  we  notice  that  the  word  uinac,  with  the  aspirated  alliteration  of 
guinac,  is  found  in  places  which  we  know  were  colonized  by  Maya 
people  in  later  centuries.  Thus  in  Honduras  and  Nicaragua,  in  the 
province  of  Chorotega  (properly  Choluteca)  villages  are  found  with  the 
name  of  Oroco-guina,  Paca-guina,  Palaca-guina.  That  of  the  famous 
volcano  of  Cosi-guina  is  of  the  same  derivation. 


14 


mention  in  their  reports,  of  a tribe  or  nation  met  with  on  their  expe- 
ditions that  bore  this  name.  It  was  only  through  the  antiquarian 
curiosity  of  the  missionaries,  that  attention  was  called  to  the  existence 
of  remnants  of  such  a people  living  on  the  plateau  of  Tlascala,  in 
scattered  villages,  and  far  off  the  main  track  which  the  Spaniards  then 
took  when  landing  in  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz  to  reach  the  City  of  Mexico. 
They  were  found  in  thick  clusters,  forming  a large  national  community, 
settled  from  remote  times  East  of  the  Mexican  plateaux,  on  the  slopes 
of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  and  in  the  vast  South,  in  Yucatan,  Tabasco  and 
Guatemala,  under  names  so  different  from  each  other  that  centuries  have 
passed  away  ere  the  true  character  of  their  co-nationality  has  been 
brought  to  light. ^ By  misconception  they  were  termed  by  the  natives 
‘Hhe  first  possessors  of  the  country  of  New  Spain.”  But  how  this 
came  to  pass  and  how  the  main  part  of  colonization,  generally  attributed* 
to  the  Tultecas,  must  in  reality  be  ascribed  to  the  Olmecas,  is  a fact 
which  will  form  a part  of  our  discussion  and  has  never  been  explained. 

If  we  wish  to  be  informed,  which  portion  of  the  plateau  of  Tlascala 
the  Olmecas  still  possessed  at  the  epoch  of  Torquemada’s  history,  the 
reader  may  find  it  quite  clearly  defined  in  the  Monarquia  of  this  author.^ 
They  had  been  compelled  by  the  intrusion  of  invading  Northern  tribes 
to  abandon  the  comfortable  plains,  and  retire  into  the  mountains  South 
and  North.  In  the  Southern  portion,  besides  other  small  Olmecan  places, 
Torquemada  enumerates  the  important  towns  of  Huexotzinco,  Huitzila- 
pan  (the  town  of  la  Puebla  de  los  Angeles'and  Orizaba.)  The  map  shows 
us  in  what  a strong  and  naturally  well-defended  region  they  lived.  To- 
the  North  the  broad  cross  chain  of  the  Sierra  Matlalcueye  protected 
them.  Anyone  coining  from  the  East  or  from  the  coast  could  only 
reach  them  through  the  passes  of  Orizaba.  On  the  West  they  were 
safely  separated  from  Anahuac  by  their  nearness  to  Huetzotzinco,  the 
pass  which  divides  the  volcanoes  of  Popocatepetl  and  Ixtaczihuatl.  On 
the  South  the  long  chain  of  mountains  traversing  the  Mexican  Isthmus 
fixes  the  limits  of  the  Tlascala  high  valley  and  furnishes  them  protection. 
In  the  northern  corner,  the  Olmecas  grouped  themselves  around  Zacat- 
lan,  and  also  at  the  Southern  slopes  of  the  Sierra  Madre  and  of  the  Sierra 
Metztitlan.  Cortes,  on  his  march  from  Tlascala  to  Anahuac,  through 
the  pass  of  Huextzinco,  went  through  the  territory  of  the  Southern 
Olmecas,  and  saw  there  remnants  of  old  walls  which  had  again  been 
imperfectly  repaired  in  order  to  resist  him.  Later  investigations  reveal 
long  extended  defences  through  this  whole  Southern  territory.  When 
the  Nahoas  invaded  this  country  from  the  North  they  found  on 

Tt  is  but  fair  to  mention  at  this  place  that  through  the  industry  of 
two  scholars,  the  Mexican  savant.  Dr.  Don  Orozco  y. Berra,  and  the 
German,  Dr.  II.  Berendt,  the  first  steps  were  made,  and  mainl3’  in  the 
direction  of  linguistic  research,  which  have  led  to  the  recognition  of 
this  ethnologic  fact. 

•Torquemada  (Juan  de)  Monarquia  de  la  Indias  [written  about  the 
year  1500],  Libro  III.,  Cap.  8,  9 and  18. 


0 


15 

oue  of  the  high  peaks  of  the  Matlalcueye  Mountains  a stone  statue, 
representing  Tlaloc,  the  God  of  Rain,  whose  worship  had  been  either 
long  respected  by  them,  or  was  tolerated  from  prudence  and  afterwards 
adopted.  Also  in  the  North,  in  the  Sierra  of  Metztitlan,  sculptures  have 
been  found  which  bear  no  relation  to  the  religion  of  the  Nahoas  and  are 
of  a different  period,  and  Boturini^  saw  upon  a high  rock  of  the 
mountain  a tau  (T)  painted  in  blue  with  the  color  still  well  preserved, 
and  at  the  right  of  it  five  small  white  balls. 

The  Olrnecas  themselves  still  narrated  with  pride  that  they  were  the  first 
colonists  of  these  regions  until  the  Tlascaltecas  and  the  Teochichimecas 
came  and  took  from  them  the  best  part  of  the  land  and  forced  them  to  leave 
the  country.  They  still  remembered  their  genealogy  in  a fragmentary 
way,  aud  enumerated  the  names  of  their  chiefs  in  succession,  each  of 
whom  had  reigned  eighty  years,  as  they  reported.  At  the  head  of  this 
list  stands  Omeacatl.  If  it  could  be  ascertained  that  this  name  was 
merely  corrupted  from  Olmecatl,  it  would  give  confirmatory  evidence  of 
the  conception  we  have  formed  concerning  them,  and  which  they  them- 
selves seemed  to  have  entertained.  But  their  so-called  forced  migrations 
prove,  on  closer  investigation,  of  no  great  extent.  They  only  prove 
that  the  union  of  their  settlements  in  the  high  plateau  of  Tlascala  was 
interrupted  about  the  year  1100  A.  D.,  and  the  middle  territory  was 
occupied  by  the  victorious  Tlascaltecas  (as  we  already  know)  until  the 
time  of  the  conquest.  The  Olrnecas  complained  loudly  that  these 
invaders  had  occupied  the  best  part  of  their  land,  and  had  succeeded  in 
driving  many  families  to  the  North  and  South  side  of  the  middle  zone  of 
the  high  plateaux,  while  others  were  forced  to  retreat  East  and  West, 
and  a portion  of  them  came  back  and  accepted  the  new  conditions. 
The  chroniclers  make  no  mention  of  a language  peculiar  to  the  Olrnecas, 
and  we  know  of  no  catechism  or  vocabulary  attributed  to  them.  They 
seem  to  have  accepted  the  Nahoa  idiom  of  the  Tlascaltecas,  but  to  have 
spoken  it  with  a foreign  dialect  that  was  strange  to  the  Tlascaltecas,  and 
also  to  the  Mexicans  of  Anahuac.  For  this  reason  those  of  them  who 
had  settled  in  the  North  around  Zacatlan  were  called  by  the  natives 
Tenimes,  Stutterers,  a name  which  is  preserved  in  a part  of  the 
Sierra  Madre  by  the  designation  Sierra  de  Tenamitic.  Those  living  on 
the  Southern  mountains  of  Tlascala  were  called  Populucas,  a name 
which  recurs  in  other  places,  aud  which  the  Nahoas  understood  as 
designating  a foreign  people  who  had  amalgamated  with  them. 

An  interpretation  of  the  name  Olmeca  has  been  attempted  by  Busch- 
mann,  in  whose  correct  studies  and  investigations  we  can  always  place 
much  confidence.  He  has  great  doubts  as  to  the  word  being  of  Nahuatl 


^Botnrini,  Idea  d.  n.  nneva  Historia  General,  page  50,  Madrid,  1746. 
This  tau  is  not  a Nahuatl  but  a Maya  symbol  for  one  of  their  Calendar- 
days.  It  doubtless  performs  this  function  on  the  Palenqne  slabs,  on 
account  of  the  number  of  bars  and  points  that  stand  by  it. 


16 


origin.  “ If  it  is  Nahuatl,”  he  says,  “ the  word  Olmecatl  must  contain 
in  its  first  syllables  the  name  of  the  place  Olman,  while  inecatl  is*  the 
ending  for  those  names  and  places  which  end  in  man.  Those,  however, 
who  prefer  Hulmeca,  which  is  the  orthography  employed  by  Torquemada, 
can  not  fail  to  recognize  in  the  root  the  word  olli  or  hule^  rubber.”  That 
the  Nahoas  should  have  culled  the  Olmecas  a Rubber  People  can  not 
surprise  us  more  than  the  designation  they  gave  to  other  neighboring 
tribes,  as  the  Zapotecas  and  the  Xicalancas.  They  named  the  inhabit- 
ants from  the  chief  products  found  in  their  territories,  or  which  they 
procured  from  them.  The  xicara  is  a tree  gourd  from  which  the  natives 
even  at  the  present  time  make  their  drinking  vessels,  and  their  utensils 
for  washing  and  for  the  kitchen.  The  zapote  is  a soft  apple  from  which 
meal  is  produced  to  be  used  in  case  of  a bad  harvest  of  corn,  in  making 
a variety  of  tortilla  much  liked  by  the  natives.  The  hule,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  the  thickened  juice  of  Castiloa  edulis,  which  among  natives  so 
much  given  to  ornamental  finery  was  used  to  fasten  feathers  to  their 
diadems,  helmets  and  cassocks,  and  to  light  the  fires  in  their  vessels 
containing  copal  used  at  th«ir  sacrificial  ceremonies.  To  explain  the 
name  Hulmeca  from  the  large  production  and  use  of  this  valuable 
sap,  is  at  least  very  reasonable,  but  has  the  appearance  of  an  after- 
thought. It  will  be  preferable  to  derive  the  word  from  Oloman,  for  this 
is  the  proper  name  of  one  of  the  four  principal  leaders  of  the  conquering 
immigrants,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  with  whose  tribe  the  Nahoas 
probably  first  came  in  contact,  and  they  may  have  named  the  neighbor- 
ing settlements  from  it.^  Buschmann’s  purely  linguistic  conjecture 
thus  receives  from  the  discovery  of  the  name  Oloman  a valuable 
historical  confirmation. 

The  present  extent  of  the  high  plateau  of  Tlascala,  however,  seems 
to  have  been  but  a small  portion  of  the  ancient  territory  of  the  Olmecas. 
Without  contradiction  from  any  source,  Sahaguu^  in  a broader  and 
more  antiquarian  sense,  describes  the  whole  of  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  from  Tampico  Southward  to  the  Laguna  de  Terminos,  as  the 
old  territory  of  the  Olmecas,  which  his  contemporaries,  the  IS^thoas, 
indicated  to  him  by  that  name.  They  informed  him  that  the  Northern 
part  of  this  territory  was  still  known  among  Nahoa  natives  by  the  name 
Olmeca-  Vitztoti,  while  the  Southern  portion  bore  the  name  Olmeca- 
Xicalanca.  He  does  not  say  what  tribe  dwelt  between  these  two 

territories.  He  cared  to  collect  only  what  the  natives  knew  and  had 
preserved  about  the  Olmecas,  whom  they  recognized  as  the  most  ancient 
people,  and,  indeed,  their  notions  about  those  things  seem  to  have  been 

^Oloman  recurs  repeatedly  in  Popol-Vuh  as  being  one  of  the  most 
ancient  chieftains  of  the  Quiche  (Maya)  tribe.  He  is  mentioned 
together  with  Tepeu,  Cohah,  Quenech  and  Ahau.  In  the  Katunes  of 
Maya  History,  § 1,  he  seems  to  appear  under  the  name  “ Holon-Chan- 
Tepeuh  and  his  followers.”  Proceedings  Am.  Ant.  Soc.,  Oct.  1879. 

-Sahagun  (Hist.  d.  1.  Conquista  d.  1.  Nueva  Espaiia  in  Kingsbor. 
Coll.,  Vol.  VII.,  Lib.  III.,  Cap.  XIX.,  § 12,  and  the  end  of  § 14. 


17 


exceedinj?ly  vague.  Let  us  therefore  supplement  this  omission  by  stating 
that  on  the  coast  simitar  changes  of  occupation  had  occurred  as  on  the 
high  plateaux.  While  there  the  Tlascaltecas  had  broken  the  unity  of 
the  Olmecas,  a new  tribe  of  Nahoa  descent  had  shifted  towards  the 
coast  and  divided  the  Olmecas  who  resided  on  the  seaboard  into  a 
Northern  and  a Southern  portion.  This  tribe  was  known  as  the 
Totonacas.  Their  chief  town  was  Cempoalla,  and  they  were  the  first 
to  salute  Cortes  as  the  long-expected  deliverer  Quetzalcohuatl,  and  who 
drew  his  attention  to  “the  riches  of  Colhua  and  Mexico."'  They  enabled 
him  by  their  friendly  offices  to  penetrate  to  Anahuac,  and  protected  him 
later  in  his  retreat  to  the  coast. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  what  Sahagun  reports  concerning  the  territory  of 
the  old  Olmeca-Viztoti,  which  was  known  to  his  conternpararies  by  the 
name  Huasteca  or  Cuexteca.  Inhabiting  both  sides  of  the  river  Panuco, 
they  extended  downwards  to  near  the  Tecolutla  river.  On  the  Western 
side  they  bordered  on  the  limits  of  tribes  not  particularly  described,  and  on 
the  East  were  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  where  the  alluvium  from 
the  rivers  had  formed  the  great  bayous  of  Tampico, Tamiagua  and  Tuspan. 
Of  the  ruins  which  are  left  there  only  the  great  teocalli,  the  pyramids  of 
Papantla  and  Misantla  are  known.  But  this  district  has  hardly  been 
explored  at  all.  Besides  other  reasons  to  be  hereafter  stated,  we  have 
the  following  grounds  for  believing  that  it  is  here  we  must  look  for  the 
so-called  Tamoanchan,  very  often  mentioned  in  historical  accounts  as  the 
supposed  starting  point  of  prehistoric  civilization.  The  names  of 
places  in  no  part  of  Central  America  and  Mexico  begin  with  Tam, 
while  alone  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Panuco  and  the  Laguna  of 
Tamiagua  we  find  such  names  in  great  abundance. ^ (See  map.)  It  is 
true  the  word  Tamoanchan  does  not  appear  on  our  maps,  but  the 
similarity  of  sound  induces  us  to  associate  it  with  the  others,  and  to  ask 
the  question  what  was  really  the  meaning  of  the  tarn  so  frequently 
recurring  in  the  language  of  the  Huastecas.  Of  this  the  grammar  and 
vocabulary  of  Father  Tapia  Zeiiteno,^  which  appeared  in  Mexico  in  the 
year  1767,  affords  us  information,  and  we  find  that  tarn  may  mean  both  a 
■canoe,  and  a son  when  his  mother  calls  him.  But  if  used  in  connection 
with  the  names  of  places,  it  is  equivalent  to  there  are,  and  Zenteno  gives 
a variety  of  examples.  Now,  if  the  second  syllable  oan  expresses  the  local 
adverb  where,  according  to  Zenteno’s  vocabulary  (page  45),  and  the  last 
syllable  chan  or  tzan  means  a serpent,  we  have  a pure  Huastecan  word 
which  means  the  place  where  serpents  live.  We  can  safely  change  the  word 
serpent  for  priest  or  sorcerer,  as  according  to  the  use  of  the  Central 
American  languages  either  interpretation  would  be  correct.  If  people 

^As  we  had  no  room  to  write  them  out  on  the  map,  they  shall  be 
enumerated  here  in  full : Tamaulipa,  Tampico,  Tamesin,  Tamiagua, 
Tampazquin,  Tampacan,  Tamuy,  Tampaol,  Tamguyo,  and  probably 
many  more  of  the  kind,  not  written  on  the  map  of  V.  A.  Malte  Brun,  in 
Brasseur’s  Hist.  d.  Nat.  Civ.  du  Mexique. 

^Carlos  de  Tapia  Zenteno,  Noticia  sobre  la  Huasteca,  Mexico,  1767. 


18 


speak  of  soakes  they  always  add  a description  of  the  particular  kind 
they  wish  to  indicate. 

The  language  of  the  Huastecas  is  one  of  the  many  dialects  which 
belong  to  the  great  Maya  stock.  We  have  seen  above  that  while  the 
Tenimes  of  the  Olmecas  in  the  Northern  valley  of  Tlascala  learned  and 
spoke  the  Nahua  idiom,  but  never  were  able  to  reach  that  elegance 
with  which  it  was  spoken  at  Tezcuco,  the  portion  of  the  Olmecas  living 
beyond  the  mountains  of  Tlascala  and  residing  on  the  Atlantic  slopes 
and  in  the  Huasteca  proper  had  preserved  their  parent  idiom,  the 
Maya.^  The  Nahoas  and  these  Huastecas  did  not  understand  each 
other.  The  civilized  Mexicans  politely  called  the  Huastecas  'Hohueyo, 
our  neighbors,”  but  the  common  people  are  said  to  have  called  them  by 
various  bad  names.  They  ridiculed  their  teeth,  which  they  used  to  file 
to  a point  and  to  color  black,  and  found  fault  with  the  red  and  yellow 
color  of  their  hair  and  with  their  indecency  in  not  wearing  a maxtli. 
But  they  were  held  to  be  very  rich.  The  women  wove  cotton  into  the 
finest  fabrics.  They  made  holes  in  their  noses  and  ears  and  suspended 
therefrom  green  stones  set  in  gold  rings.  Their  arms  and  feet  they 
ornamented  with  ruffles  made  of  feathers,  and  around  their  necks  and 
heads  they  wore  frills  in  the  form  of  fans.  From  this  description  of 
Sahagun,^  we  might  believe  that  he  had  taken  his  information,  not  from 
the  lips  of  the  natives  but  from  some  of  the  many  sculptures  of  the 
Maya  race,  from  Huasteca  to  Yucatan,  and  as  far  as  Falenque  and 
Copan.  Sahagun  also  mentions  this  fact,  that  the  Huastecas  cut  oflf  the 
heads  from  captive  and  fallen  foes,  as  we  see  often  in  those  sculptures 
where  ahead  hangs  from  the  richly  ornamented  girdle  of  a victor,^  while 
in  regard  to  their  Totonacan  neighbors,  he  informs  us  (1.  c.  § 9)  that 
they  lived  in  a more  civilized  way,  probably  on  account  of  their  kinship 
to  the  Nahoa  stock.  These  Totonacas,  like  the  Huastecas,  had  strikingly 
low  foreheads,  but  they  shaved  them  artistically,  and  their  faces  being 
much  longer  gave  them  a better  appearance.  They  made  use  of  mirrors 
and  never  neglected  to  put  on  a maxtli  under  the  huipil,  which  was  woven 
like  a net.  They  also  delighted  to  ornament  themselves  with  gold  and 
feathers,  which,  as  they  were  worn  by  men  of  a whiter  color,  more 
strongly  built  and  having  nobler  countenances  than  their  neighbors, 
gave  them  a splendid  appearance.  One  part  of  the  Totonacas  spoke  the 
Otomi,  another  the  Nahoa,  and  a third  part  the  Huasteca  dialect,  which 


^C.  Hermann  Berendt,  Kemarks  on  the  Centres  of  Ancient  Civiliza- 
tion in  C.  America;  Address  before  the  Amer.  Geogr.  Society  of  New 
York,  July  10th,  1876,  page  10. 

-B.  d.  Sahayun,  Lib.  X.,  Cap.  14,  parrafo  10. 

^Stone  statues  of  this  description  are  exhibited  in  the  rooms  of  the 
New  York  Historical  Society.  For  heads  cut  otf  and  hanging  down 
from  the  girdle,  see  illustration  given  by  J.  Lloyd  Stephens,  Central 
America,  etc.,  Vol.  II.,  page  35Sr  and  Pii.  J.  J.  Valentini,  Two  Mex. 
Chalchihuites,  page  13,  Proceedings  Am.  Ant.  Soc.,  April,  1881. 


19 


remark  designates  plainly  the  territory  of  such  tribes  as  they  had 
invaded. 

The  Olmeca-Xicalancas  are  said  to  have  lived  South  of  the  Totonacas.^ 
The  chroniclers  add  nothing  regarding  them  except  that  the  name 
Xicalanca  still  survives  in  two  places  on  the  coast  of  the  Gulf,  the  one 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Vera  Cruz,  the  other  upon  one  of  the  islands 
lying  near  the  Laguna  de  Terrninos.  The  first  had  been  a market  very 
much  resorted  to;  the  other  is  still  somewhat  frequented  to-day  for  the 
same  purpose.  At  the  time  of  the  conquest,  the  territory  of  this 
Southern  part  from  the  Totonacas  downwards  beyond  Tabasco  was 
variously  designated.  The  Mexicans  called  the  coast  from  Vera  Cruz  to 
the  mouths  of  the  river  Alvarado  ChalcMhuecan  (the  land  of  green 
mussels).  From  here  to  the  mouths  of  the  Guatzacoalco  the  coast  was 
called  Anahuac-Xicalanco  (Xicalanco  by  the  water).  Then  followed  the 
present  territory  of  Tabasco  with  the  name  Nonohualco  (the  land  of 
Nonohual).  The  interior  of  the  country  directly  West  bore  the  name 
Cuetlachtlan  (the  land  of  wolves^).  It  is  important  to  note  that 
Mexican  traditon  designates  the  whole  of  these  Atlantic  slopes  and 
coast  as  the  land  of  the  early  Olmecas.  The  reason  is  probably  because 
about  the  year  1100  the  highlands  of  Mexico  were  overrun  by  several 
Nahoa  tribes,  and  the  former  inhabitants  were  driven  slowly  towards 
the  coast,  as  we  have  already  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Totonacas  who 
stopped  only  at  the  sea.  Other  Nahoas,  more  adventurous,  spread 
themselves  further,  and  we  have  strong  historical  proof  of  their 
appearance  and  occupation  in  Yucatan  at  this  same  period.^ 

When,  therefore,  the  name  of  the  Olmecas  appears  in  the  early 
Mexican  records  of  the  Nahoas,  we  must  not  hesitate  to  recognize  in 
them  that  people  East  of  Anahuac  who  spread  along  the  Atlantic  slopes 
and  South  of  it  through  Yucatan,  Tabasco  and  the  whole  of  Guatemala, 
and  whom  w^e  designate  to-day  by  the  collective  name  of  Maya.  The 
Nahoas  never  attempted  to  bring  them  into  subjection,  for  although  we 
find  the  Northern  highlands  of  Tlascala  and  the  coast  of  the  Totonacas 
occupied  by  Nahoas,  and  their  language  still  spoken,  their  success  was 
achieved  slowly,  and  with  qualifications,  in  a long  period  of  years,  begin- 
ing  with  the  year  1064.  Before  this  epoch,  the  Olmecas,  when  hard 
pressed,  retirer^to  the  Northern  mountains  of  Tlascala  or  returned  after  the 
lapse  of  years  to  places  on  the  plain  which  had  remained  unoccupied,  and 

'^Fernando  de  Alva  IxtUlxochitl,  Relaciones  Historicas,  Tom.  I.,  Cap.  1, 
in  Kingsbor.  Coll.,  Vol.  IX.  Las  Casas,  Historia  Apologetica,  Tom.  Ill, 
Cap.  123.  Juan  de  Torquemada,  Monarq.  Indiana,  Tom.  1,  Cap.  23,  and 
Tom.  III.,  Cap.  8,  Madrid,  1613.  Francisco  Lopez  de  Gomara,  Historia 
gen.  d.  1.  Indias,  Cap.  66,  Zaragoza,  1552.  Codex  Vaticanus.  Kingsbor. 
Coll.,  Vol.  II.,  plate  91.  Mar.  Veytia,  in  Kingsbor.  Coll.,  Vol.  VIII., 
Tom.  1,  Cap.  12. 

^See  the  map. 

'^Ph.  J.  J.  Valentini,  Katunes  of  Maya  History,  Proceedings  of  Am. 
Ant.  Society,  Worcester,  Mass.,  Oct.,  1879,  page  44. 


20 


which  Acosta,  Torqiiemada  and  others  have  designated  as  Yancuictlapan- 
Huapalcalco,  Texoloc  and  Huexotzinco.  Here  they  began  peacefully  to 
mingle  with  the  Nahoas  and  to  construct  that  peculiar  dialect,  which  the 
Spaniards  were  unable  to  decide,  whether  it  was  more  nearly  related  to  the 
Nahuatl,  or  to  the  Olnieca.  The  Olmecas,  therefore,  as  primitive  owners 
of  the  soil,  were  those  who  taught  the  needy  immigrating  Nahoas  the 
secrets  of  their  country.  Nowhere  can  we  detect  any  evidence  that  the 
Nahoas  or  Mayas,  impelled  by  mutual  hatred  or  religious  zeal,  had  ever 
nought  to  exterminate  each  other.  Land  for  settlements  and  for  agricul- 
tural purposes  could  be  obtained  in  abundance.  Covetous  encroachments 
of  the  poorer  immigrants  against  the  possessors  of  the  soil,  and  alterca- 
tions and  violence  on  the  border-land  no  doubt  existed.  It  was  only  after 
the  year  1064  that  serious  troubles  began  to  aflect  them,  of  which  it  is 
not  our  purpose  to  speak  here.  If  the  ancient  Nahoas,  well  known  to  us 
under  the  name  of  Tultecas,  had  really  brought  with  them  from  their 
Northern  homes  the  worship  of  the  sun,  we  see  on  the  other  hand  the 
worship  of  the  ancient  and  venerable  Tlaloc,  the  God  of  Clouds  and 
Rain,  of  the  Mayas  preserved  among  them.  This  worship  was  also 
continued  by  the  fanatical  Aztecs,  of  whom  we  read  that  they  had  built 
for  him  a chapel,  with  his  statue  inside,  on  the  platform  of  the  large 
Pyramid  near  to  that  of  their  own  God  Huitzilopochtli. 

We  may  add  that  as  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest  those  Mayas  who  had 
settled  in  companies  on  the  Pacific  Coast  from  Nicaragua  as  far  down  as 
Nicoya  were  also  designated  by  the  name  of  Olmecas.^  It  is  stated  that 
they  had  been  expelled  from  Cholula  and  driven  there  about  the  year  1100. 
This  statement  will  be  confirmed  wh^n  we  examine  the  vocabulary  col- 
lected in  Nicaragua  by  the  historian  Oviedo,  in  1530.  It  shows  a strong 
intermixture  of  Maya  and  Nahuatl  words,  the  latter  imported  by  a party 
of  Mexicans,  who  about  the  year  1350  made  a sudden  appearance  and 
settled  in  the  midst  of  the  Olmecas  along  the  shores  of  the  Lake  of 
Nicaragua.  By  this  invasion  this  new  Olmecan  ground  was  divided  into 
two  portions,  the  Northern  called  Choluteca,  and  the  Southern  Nicoya, 
both  names  being  still  preserved.  Oviedo®  spells  it  Chorotega,  and 
observes  sagaciously  that  the  invaders  spoke  a diflTerent  language  from 
the  former  settlers,  however,  without  stating  the  descent  of  these  two 
-colonists,  or  the  events  that  had  caused  them  to  settle  at  such  a 
distance  from  their  original  home.  As  a proof  that  Maya  was  spoken  by 
these  invading  Olmecas,  we  may  mention  the  following  fact : Gil 

Gonzalez  de  Avila,  the  first  conqueror  of  Nicaragua,  reported  to  the 
Crown  of  Spain  that  the  cacique  of  Nicoya  had  furnished  him  with  a 
messenger,  to  tell  the  cacique  of  Nicaragua  that  all  the  Calachuni  in  his 
country  were  already  converted  to  Christ.  In  Calachuni  we  must 
certainly  recognize  the  halach  uinic  or  the  holy  men  of  the  Maya 

^Juan  de  Torquemacla,  Monarquia  Indiana,  Lib.  III.,  Cap.  39. 

F.  de  Oviedo  y Valdes,  Historia  Geii.  y Nat.  d.  las  ludias,  Tomo  IV., 
Appendix. 


21 


language.  Thus,  very  probably,  all  the  sculptures  discovered  by 
E.  G.  Squier^  upon  the  islands  of  the  Nicaraguan  Lake  derive  their 
origin  from  those  Cholutecan  Olmecas,  an  opinion  which  is  highly 
corroborated  by  the  similarity  to  those  found  in  Huasteca,  Yucatan 
and  Mexico  in  general. 


THE  TULTECAS. 

It  appears  like  a contradiction  when  we  propose  to  treat  of  Tultecas, 
and  declare  at  the  very  commencement  that  strictly  speaking  no  nation 
of  Tultecas,  nor  empire,  nor  language  of  that  name  ever  existed.  Had 
their  existence  been  a fact,  there  would  have  undoubtedly  remained  a 
collection  of  families  in  some  corner  of  Central  America  and  Mexico, 
which  would  look  back  with  pride  to  the  works  of  their  forefathers,  and 
which  would  have  called  their  new  home,  however  circumscribed  its 
limits,  TuUeca,  and  themselves  the  Tultecas;  if  so  great  an  empire  as  i& 
pretended  had  ever  been  destroyed.  The  missionaries  would  have 
traced  them,  and  we  should  now  meet  their  languages  in  grammars, 
catechisms  and  vocabularies.  But  of  such  records  no  vestiges  remain. 
The  contradiction,  however,  will  be  removed  if  we  remind  the  reader  of 
the  fact  that  a tribe  came  from  the  North  to  Anahuac  about  the  year  600 
A.  D.,  and  settled  near  the  lakes  of  Tenochtitlan  and  Tezcuco,  gaining 
some  prominence  on  this  central  spot;  and  if  its  language  had  only 
been  preserved  we  should  therein  possess  material  in  their  idiom,  diflerent 
from  that  of  the  Olraecan-Maya,  from  which  to  draw  sure  inferences  as 
to  their  preeminent  intelligence,  their  high  social  civilization  and  their 
skill  in  all  practical  works  appertaining  to  art  and  luxury.  What  we 
intend  to  emphasize,  is  our  protest  against  the  general  opinion  that 
this  tribe  ever  called  itself  Tultecas,  and  that  the  people  and  tribes 
among  whom  it  settled  ever  called  it  by  that  name. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  what  contributed  to  the  promulgation 
and  final  adoption  of  this  name  in  history,  when  we  consult  the  rich 
material  left  us  by  the  chroniclers.  Alva  de  Ixtlilxochitl,  a Spanish  half- 
breed,  who  was  descended  on  his  mother’s  side  from  the  noble  house  of 
Tezcuco,  was  the  author  of  two  voluminous  works, ^ in  which  he  has 
described  the  history  of  his  mother’s  people  from  the  time  of  “ the 
Great  Deluge  to  the  Spanish  Conquest.”  Understanding  their  language, 
and  possessing  besides  the  complete  annals  of  his  people  and  knowing 
how  to  explain  in  fitting  words  their  historical  pictures,  he  felt  a praise- 
worthy ambition  to  protect  his  race  against  the  poor  and  disfigurating 
scribbling  of  the  Spanish  missionaries,  and  to  present  himself  as  an 
authority  in  his  people’s  history,  more  competent  and  more  fully  informed 
than  they  were.  We  will  not  discuss  here  wherein  he  also  often  fell  into 

^E.  G.  Squier,  Nicaragua,  its  People,  Scenery,  Monuments,  etc. ; 
2 vols..  New  York,  1852. 

^Fern.  de  Alva  Ixtlilxochitl,  Kelaciones  Historicas;  Id.  Historia 
Chichimeca;  both  in  Kingsbor.  Coll.,  Vol.  IX. 


22 


•error,  and  wherein  we  must  set  him  down  as  a very  confused  chro- 
nologist.  The  great  value  of  his  work,  for  our  purpose,  consists  in  the 
supposition  that  among  the  pictured  annals  which  he  had  before  his 
eyes  when  he  wrote,  a sheet  must  have  existed  upon  which  the  Exodus 
of  the  “Tultec  Knights  ” (as  he  calls  them)  from  the  North  to  Anahuac 
with  corresponding  chronological  signs  was  pictured,  and  that  he 
<lescribes  to  us  their  halting  places,  step  by  step,  in  a most  circum- 
stantial manner.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  sheet,  as  well  as  all  the 
others  from  which  he  worked,  has  been  lost.  The  government  of  New’ 
Spain  ordered  these  drawings  with  his  MSS.  to  be  given  up,  and  forbade 
their  printing  and  publication.  Boturini  (about  1760)  rescued  them 
from  the  archives,  but  he  also  was  forced  to  give  them  up,  and  they  were 
handed  over  to  Veytia^  for  inspection  and  criticism.  He  examined 
the  pictures  and  the  text  of  Ixtlilxochitl,  and  his  labors  were  afterwards 
published.  But  the  pictures  themselves  have  disappeared,  and  some 
traces  indicate  that  they  found  their  way  to  France,  while  others  denote 
that  they  were  carried  to  England.  The  strongest  proof  that  Ixtlilxochitl 
possessed  pictures  of  that  kind,  rests  on  his  own  description  of  the 
Tultec  Exodus.  It  is  detailed  so  accurately  that  any  one  who  has 
obtained  a sufficient  familiarity  with  Mexican  picture-writing,  might 
almost  feel  enabled  to  undertake  a reconstruction  of  the  sheet  from 
Ixtlilxochitl’s  text. 

We  can  not  refrain  from  giving  this  text,  though  in  greatly  abridged 
form. 

“ In  a town,  Tlachicatzin,  in  the  territory  Hue-Tlapallan,  two  chiefs 
named  Chalcatzin  and  Tlacamitzin  rose  against  the  laws  and  existing 
order  of  things  in  the  year  1 TecpatP  (equivalent  to  the  year  544  B.  C.). 
Punished  with  exile,  they  some  time  later  tried  their  fortunes  in  war. 
But  finally  they  found  themselves  obliged  to  fly  and  leave  the  country, 
and  upon  their  way  reaching  the  settlements  of  Tlaxiculiacau  and 
uniting  with  the  troops  of  related  families  living  there,  together 
they  arrived  at  the  settlement  of  Tlapallanconco.  Here  they  husbanded 
their  strength  for  three  years,  and  after  holding  a council  with 
five  other  chiefs,  they  decided  to  migrate  still  farther,  because  their 
•enemies  were  too  near  to  them.  Their  astrologer,  Huematzin 
(the  man  with  the  long  hand)  had  told  them  of  a far-distant  land 
in  the  East  where  once  the  Quinametin  had  lived,  who  had  been 
exterminated  a long  time  ago,  and  whose  territory  was  now  without 
inhabitants  and  ready  for  occupancy.  It  was  thought  best  to  leave  at 
Tlapallanconco  some  representatives,  and  then  move  onward.  After  a 


^Mar.  Fern,  de  Veytia  y Fcheverna,  Historia  del  Orijen,  d.  1.  Gentes, 
etc.,  in  Kingsbor.  Coll.,  Vol.  VIII. 

^This  date  1 Tecpatl  is  well  warranted,  both  by  estimation  and  com- 
putation, as  being  equivalent  to  544  after  Christ.  The  name  1 Tecpatl 
itself  stands  in  Mexican  chronology  for  every  first  year  of  the  great 
period  of  52  years.  The  then  succeeding  smaller  epochs  of  13  years 
(Tlapilli)  begin  with  the  years  1 Calli,  1 Tochtli  and  1 Acatl. 


23 


twelve  days’  march  they  came  to  a fertile  region  which  they  called 
Huey-Xallan.^  Here  they  celebrated  in  the  year  1 Calli  theirfirst  thir- 
teenth year  (tlapilli)  since  their  departure.  They  then  proceeded  on  and 
came  to  Xalisco  by  the  sea,  and  remained  there  eight  years  and  left 
there  some  of  their  people,  and  then  settled  for  five  years  at  Chimal- 
huacan  Atenco,  which  also  lay  near  the  sea.  'I'wenty-six  years  had  now 
elapsed  since  their  departure.  When  leaving  their  homes  they  had 
made  a solemn  vow  to  keep  themselves  from  their  wives,  in  order  that, 
free  from  the  burden  of  children,  they  might  sooner  reach  their  destina- 
tion. The  time  covered  by  their  vow  having  now  elapsed,  at  that  place 
they  celebrated  their  first  conjugal  feast  and  then  directed  their  steps  to 
Toxpan,^  which  they  reached  after  a march  of  eighteen  days.  During 
the  five  years  they  had  passed  at  Toxpan  their  force  had  begun  to 
increase  in  numbers,  and  they  moved  on  and  selected  the  spot  Quiya- 
huitzlan  Atenco  (near  the  sea'/^  for  a settlement,  where  they  were 
obliged  to  build  boats  in  order  to  spread  themselves  among  the  islands 
more  easily.  After  they  had  passed  six  years  in  this  locality  they  went 
to  Zacatlan,"*  where  they  remained  seven  years,  and  then  to  Totzapan^ 
for  six  years.  From  thence  they  went  to  Tepetla,®  staying  seven 
years,  and  then  to  Mazatepec,’'  eight  years.  In  Ziuhcohuatl®  they 
passed  eight  years,  and  in  Iztachuexucha,®  situated  farther  north,  they 
remained  twenty-six  years.  From  that  place  they  moved  to  Tulant- 
zinco,^"  where  the  tribe  was  sheltered  in  a large  wooden  building  and 
lived  there  about  eighteen  years.  But  at  last  they  preferred  to  change 
that  place  for  Tullan,  where  they  remained  in  order  to  make  it  their 
final  resting  place.  (648  B.  C.).” 

They  had  spent  104  years  in  their  journey,  a distance  of  about  1200 
miles  in  a direct  line,  and  Ixtlilxochitl  does  not  mention  what  people 
and  tribes  they  encountered  during  this  time,  only  that  on  their  arrival 
at  Tullan,  he  says  that  the  Chichirnecas  had  become  their  neighbors, 
with  whom  they  began  to  stir  up  trouble.  Then  by  the  advice  of 
Huematzin,  they  sent  an  embassey  to  the  King  of  the  Chichirnecas  with 
the  request  that  he  should  give  them  a King  of  his  own  family,  who  met 
this  overture  in  a friendly  way  and  promised  that  then,  and  for  all  future 
time  they  should  remain  unmolested,  and  that  both  tribes  should  live 
together  in  peace. 

Ht  is  the  Huichola  of  to-day. 

^East  of  the  volcano  of  Colima,  to-day  Tuxpan. 

^Corrupted  to  Cavistan  to-day. 

^Zacatollan,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mescala  river. 

^Totzapan  on  the  maps  of  to-day. 

^Probably  the  Tepeacuilco  of  the  modern  maps. 

’Increased  to  Temazatepec  to-day. 

®Kecognizable  in  Xuchicoatlan. 

^Iztac-huechucha,  the  place  of  the  white  willows ; to-day  Huechutla. 

“^Tulan-Tzinco ; translated  Little  Tulan. 


24 


This  description  of  the  march  is  as  clear  as  any  of  that  time  can  be 
expected  to  be.  With  the  exception  of  a few  of  the  halting  places,  all 
other  localities  can  be  traced  with  certainty  upon  almost  any  good 
Mexican  map.^  Here  and  there  Ixtlilxochitl’s  manner  of  spelling 
diflers  from  the  modern.  For  the  nominal  seat  of  the  rebels,  which 
the  author  calls  Tlachicatzin,  we  do  not  need  to  look,  because  it  was  not 
the  name  of  a place  but  of  a person,  and  signifies  “ the  Lord  of  the  place 
where  the  Ball  House  stands.”  The  mysterious  Tlapallan  of. the  North, 
we  should  place,  from  circumstances  before  mentioned,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Culiacan,  that  is  in  the  present  state  of  Sinaloa.  The  hiero- 
glyphic symbols  designating  their  halts,  the  number  of  years  of  their 
stay,  the  number  of  years  passed  in  going  from  place  to  place,  the  foot- 
prints marking  the  connecting  lines,  the  hieroglyphic  symbols  for  the 
name.''  of  individuals,  the  settlements  they  left  on  their  march,  and  the 
chronological  marks  for  the  epoch  of  13  years  (Tlapilli),  must  have  all 
been  spread  before  the  Indian  writer  on  that  pictured  sheet.  His  other- 
wise too  dry  description,  he  endeavored  to  enliven  by  interspersing 
phrases  of  their  heroic  poetry.  In  the  ensuing  enumeration  of  the  chiefs 
who  reigned  at  Tollan  (all  of  them  being  preserved  in  the  other 
chronicles  and  works,  with  modfications  which  change  nothing  in  the 
substance),  Ixtlilxochitl  makes  a statement  which  has  been  much 
ridiculed.  A law,  he  says,  had  been  passed  by  the  tribe  that  a chief 
should  not  be  allowed  to  reign  more  than  52  years.  A better  under- 
standing of  this  seemingly  impracticable  l ule  will  probably  be  reached, 
by  considering  it  as  sanctioning  an  old  or  introducing  a new  division  of 
time,  by  which,  as  is  well-known,  the  space  of  52  years  was  regarded  as 
a cycle.  “Then  Huematzin  died,’  so  we  read,  “on  reaching  the  great 
age  of  300  years.  But  before  his  death  he  had  nevertheless  completed 
the  Teoamochtli,  a book  which  contained  the  laws,  the  astrology,  the 
division  of  time,  the  sacred  rites  and  the  whole  science  of  his  people. 

A perfect  copy  of  the  Teoamochtli  (book  of  the  gods)  has  not  indeed 
been  preserved.  The  so-called  Dresden  Codex,  the  Codex  Tro,  the 
Codex  Vatican  us  and  others,  are  only  fragments  of  similar  compositions 
describing  their  ritual  compositions.  But  the  real  existence  of  such  a 
pictured  Pandect-like  collection  can  not  be  doubted  in  the  least.  Less 
credible  appears  the  story  of  the  prolonged  life  of  Huematzin,  the  man 
with  the  great  hand.  But  we  shall  not  be  mistaken,  if  we  consider  the 
statement  of  the  death  of  Huematzin  at  300  years  of  age,  as  a 
metaphor  to  be  interpreted,  that  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  at 
Tullan,  the  reign  of  the  priesthood  came  to  an  end  and  a new  secular 
reign  began.  The  mentioned  period  of  300  years  still  remains  of 
interest.  If  we  should  count  this  period  back  from  the  foundation  of 
Tullan  (648 — 300=348)  we  have  the  year  348  B.  C.,  but  if  we  venture  to 
count  back  from  the  time  of  the  exodus  from  Huetlapallan,  we  should  have 

^We  have  taken  as  a guide  the  folio  map  of  Antonio  Garcia  Cubas, 
Mexico,  1880. 


25 


(544  — 300  = 244)  the  year  244  B.  C.  This  is  about  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  at  which  time,  accoi  diu"  to  other  calculations  (see  above) 
the  beginning  of  an  era  of  the  Mexican  nations  seems  to  have  fallen. 

Alva  de  Ixtlilxochitl  says,  that  Hueinatzin  also  left  prophecies  of  the 
good  and  bad  fortune  which  his  tribe  would  meet,  and  that  they  all  took 
place  even  to  the  smallest  details.  We  must  not  wonder  at  that,  for 
they  were  after  constructions,  which  later  generations  of  his  tribe  have 
attributed  to  him  out  of  respect. 

Only  a short  time  afterwards  the  settlers  at  Tullan  received  an 
addition  of  men  of  a similar  language,  religion  and  race.  They  also 
came  from  the  neighborhood  of  Culiacan ; they  had,  however,  taken  a 
shorter  and  more  direct  road  thence  through  Michoacan  and  Anahuac, 
and  they  had  spent  only  40  years  in  this  migration.  They  were  the 
so-called  Mixcohuas,  with  whom  Brasseur  first  made  us  acquainted  by 
his  translation  from  the  Codex  Chimalpopoca,  written  in  the  Nahuatl 
idiom.  As  to  the  substance  of  this  work,  it  surpasses  in  completenes. 
and  importance  every  other  work  of  its  kind,  and  a new  critical  transla- 
tion which  is  in  preparation,  promises  the  student  more  correct  material 
than  he  ever  had  before  without  probably  varying  the  leading  features. 
This  tribe  of  Nahoas  came  also  to  seek  land  for  a settlement.  From 
the  account  before  us,  suggestions  can  be  gathered  that  they  had  put 
themselves  in  communication  with  their  co-nationalists  at  Tullan,  and 
that  they  had  made  and  ratified  a treaty  with  them  on  the  plains  of 
Teotihuacan,  by  which  they  were  allowed  to  occupy  the  plateau  of 
Anahuac  with  its  lakes,  and  settle  at  Quauhtitlan,  but  chiefiy  at  Colhuacau. 
These  Mixcohuas  outlived  their  brother-tribe  at  Tullan  for  many  cen- 
turies. The  latter  was  already  dispersed  in  the  year  1064,  while  their 
brethren  at  Colhuacau  resisted  the  invasion  of  the  Chichimecas,  in  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries.  It  is  narrated  that  in  the  year  1376  the 
ruler  of  Colhuacan  gave  a chief  of  his  own  blood  to  the  recentiy-arrived 
tribe  of  the  Aztecs,  at  their  own  request.  These  inhabitants  of  Colhua- 
can were  always  noted  for  speaking  the  Nahuatl  tongue  with  the  greatest 
elegance,  and  for  having  been  the  founders  of  the  beautiful  town  of 
Tezcuco.  When  Cortes  on  landing  inquired  who  ruled  in  the  highlands, 
he  was  answered  : The  Mexicans  and  the  Colhuas.  Neither  Cortes,  nor 
any  of  his  generals  who  advanced  still  farther  heard  of  Tullan,  or  of  the 
Tultecas,  evidently  because  the  tribe  as  such  had  become  extinct  five 
centuries  before,  and  portions  of  it  had  already  been  absorbed  into  other 
tribes. 

After  all,  Alva  de  Ixtlilxochitl  w^s  not  incorrect  in  regarding  Tullan 
and  its  ancient  inhabitants  as  a prehistoric  people,  and  in  calling  them 
Tultecas.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  their  palaces  and  temples, 
which  then  were  in  ruins,  for  he  often  refers  to  them  as  being  memor- 
able and  splendid  antiquities,  and  it  must  have  been  well  known  to  him 
that  his  tribe  (for  he  was  a Colhuan)  did  not  found  and  inhabit  those 
ancient  towns  which  extended  as  far  as  Yucatan,  Chiapas  and  Guatemala, 
3 


since  he  does  not  intimate  that  his  tribe  had  ever  gloried  in  having 
erected  such  buildings  as  there  exist,  or  had  spread  itself  over  such  a 
large  extent  of  territory.  Hence  we  can  readily  understand,  why 
Ixtlilxochitl  should  have  attributed  all  this  work  to  that  ancient  tribe  of 
Tullan,  which  had  long  ago  passed  from  existence.  He  must  also  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  appellation  TuUecatl,  so  common  among  his 
own  people,  signifying  a man  skilled  in  all  arts  and  handicrafts.  He 
therefore  had  an  inducement  to  state  his  impression,  that  these  Tultecatl 
had  been  the  early  colonists  and  builders  of  the  cities  then  in  ruins. 
We  have  no  objection  to  the  derivation  of  the  word  tultecatl  from 
Tullan.  It  seems  everywhere  the  custom  of  the  villagers,  to  look  up  to 
those  living  in  the  capital  or  chief  town,  as  men  of  large  experience  in 
arts,  and  to  apply  such  designation  in  a wider  sense  also  to  persons  and 
things.  But  as  we  can  not  prove  that  Tullan  was  the  only  or  principal 
cradle  of  art  and  science,  from  which  place  they  spread  through  the 
country,  we  have  no  right  to  speak  of  the  architecture  of  the  Tultecas 
or  of  their  great  empire,  for,  in  respect  to  art  treasures  the  highlands  of 
Mexico  make  only  a poor  display,  while  the  majority  of  them  are  found 
in  Yucatan,  Tabasco  and  Chiapas,  in  fact  in  such  territories  as  were 
inhabited  by  the  Mayas,  and  which  were  occupied  by  the  Nahoas  only  at 
a very  late  date  (1100-1200  A.  D.),  and  at  a time  long  after  the  stones 
composing  these  edifices  had  been  placed  in  position,  and  had  already 
begun  to  crumble  away. 

Thus  far  we  have  made  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  theories 
regarding  the  prehistoric  Olmecas  and  Tultecas,  which  were  entertained 
at  the  time  of  the  Conquest;  we  have  grouped  their  settlements  terri- 
torially and  linguistically,  and  have  endeavored  to  give  a correct 
chronological  sequence  to  their  movements.  Now  we  will  undertake 
another  task  which  springs  naturally  from  the  subject,  viz  : to  discover 
what  our  authorities  will  allow  us  to  fix  upon  (1)  as  the  points  of  depart- 
ure, (2)  the  line  of  march,  and  (3)  the  final  resting  places  of  the  ancient 
tribes  of  Olmecas  and  Tultecas.  Some  of  these  questions  have  already 
been  partially  answered.  But  it  still  remains  for  us  to  discover  in  regard 
to  the  Tultecas,  whence  they  came  into  that  territory,  from  which  Alva 
de  Ixtlilxochitl,  without  any  prior  historical  statement,  describes  their 
descent  to  Tullan.  It  is  not  possible  that  a people  making  use  of  a 
language  so  perfect  and  expressive  could  have  come  into  sudden 
existence  over  night,  like  the  mushroom,  in  the  darkness  of  Culiacan. 
Such  a people  must  of  necessity  date  from  the  past,  and  possess  a rich 
history.  But  no  traces  of  such  development  and  actual  occupation  can 
be  found  in  the  neighborhood  of  Culiacan.  The  attempt  has  been  made 
to  represent  the  buildings  of  the  Zunis  and  the  Cliff  Dwellers  as  the  first 
essays  of  an  architecture,  which  we  admire  so  much  in  its  higher 
perfection  in  the  ruined  palaces  of  Mexico,  and  particularly  in  those  of 
Yucatan.  To  believe  in  such  a salto  mortale  would  not  be  possible  for 
anyone,  who  has  made  himself  at  all  familiar  with  the  first  principles  of 


architecture  and  tectonics.  It  is  not  easy  to  comprehend,  indeed  it  is 
impossible  to  understand,  how  a people  accustomed  to  erect  high-storied 
buildings  with  windows  in  them,  and  who  instead  of  entering  from  the 
ground  floor  by  doors,  climbed  to  the  higher  stories  by  ladders  and 
descended  again  the  same  way,  could  arrive  in  the  progress  of  time  and 
architectural  development  to  build  houses  of  one  story  only  on  pyramidal 
mounds,  and  to  make  them  without  windows  but  always  provided  with 
doors,  and  to  roof  this  story  with  a remarkably  massive  platform. 
The  protoplasm  of  Tultec  architecture  can  hardly  have  originated  in  the 
head  of  a Zuni  or  of  a Clitf  dweller.  It  is  difficult  also  to  comprehend 
that  the  Tultecas  should  have  made  settlements  so  far  Northward  as  the 
Zuni  live.  Had  this  been  the  case,  among  the  many  heads  of  animals 
found  among  Mexican  hieroglyphics,  we  should  have  detected  at  least 
one  of  them  resembling  the  characteristic  buflalo,  but  we  do  not  meet 
with  the  slightest  trace  of  it.  Therefore,  deeming  it  preposterous 
to  place  the  cradle  of  the  Tultecas  in  the  far  North,  we  will  no  longer 
•dwell  on  this  hypothesis,  but  we  will,  on  the  contrary,  endeavor  to 
show,  that  according  to  the  best  indications  the  Tultecas  must  have 
tirst  started  from  the  East,  and  in  particular  from  the  coast  of 
the  Mexican  Gulf,  and  thence  have  migrated  in  a North-westerly 
direction  not  very  much  farther  North  than  Culiacan.  As  regards 
the  Olmecas,  whom  we  have  learned  from  traditon  landed  at 
Panuco  on  the  Gulf  Coast,  we  will  endeavor  to  answer  this  fur- 
ther question,  how  these  magicians  (for  with  this  name  the  savage 
Maya  Indians  always  designated  them)  could  step  by  step  establish 
themselves  along  the  Gulf  Coast  as  far  as  Golfo  Dulce  and  Copan,  and 
■could  impress  upon  the  intervening  territory  and  people,  a civilization 
whose  origin  and  character  is  still  so  enigmatical  a problem  to  the 
modern  student. 

We  will  begin  with  the  flrst  acts  of  the  Olmecas  on  the  Panuco  coast, 
the  coast  of  Tam,  as  we  may  call  it.  Three  authorities  are  at  our 
disposal  for  this  purpose — Sahagun,  the  Codex  Chimalpopoca  and  the 
Popul  Vuh.  In  the  flrst  two  we  And  stated  the  ideas  entertained  by  the 
Nahoa  writers  regarding  the  Tultecas,  and  in  the  third  the  ideas 
entertained  by  the  Maya  writers  respecting  the  Olmecas.  As  to  the 
Codex  Chimalpopoca  and  the  Popul  Vuh,  the  accounts  given  agree  only 
in  their  flrst  chapters.  They  inform  us  how,  after  many  fruitless 
attempts,  man  was  created,  or  as  we  should  state  it  in  modern  prose, 
divested  of  poetical  phraseology,  how  the  rude  savage  was  led  step  by 
step  to  civilization.  Then  follow  in  both  works  the  account  of  certain 
catastrophes  caused  by  atmospheric  changes  and  volcanic  eruptions 
which  hindered  but  did  not  entirely  put  an  end  to  the  civilization  already 
well  advanced,  and  left  a portion  of  the  inhabitants  unharmed  to  carry 
on  the  work.  From  this  point  these  two  authorities  are  at  variance. 
The  Nahoa  (Codex  Chimalpopoca)  is  occupied  with  the  early  history  of 
the  tribe,  which  is  set  down  in  flxed  chronological  sequence  from  the  year 


28 


596  A.  D.  to  the  time  of  the  Conquest  (1521  A.  D.).  Our  attention  is 
turned  immediately  after  the  narration  of  physical  convulsions  to  the 
consideration  of  particular  localities,  such  as  Anahuac  and  Teotihuacan. 
Another  Nahoa  tribe,  not  the  Tultec  tribe  of  Ixtlilxochitl,  but  one  which 
afterwards  came  from  the  N<>rth  and  which  is  called  the  Mixcohuas, 
from  the  name  of  its  leader,  is  described  to  us  as  celebrating  in 
Teotihuacan  a great  religious  ceremony,  probably  in  connection  with 
its  neighbors  from  Tullan.  The  Maya  chronicle  (the  PopulVuh),  on 
the  other  hand,  goes  on  to  state  that  the  leader  Gucumatz  remained  for 
a long  time  at  Tamoanchan  enduring  great  privations,  until  he  secured 
provisions  for  his  people  and  guides  for  his  further  progress  in  countries- 
yet  unknown  to  him,  at  Paxil  and  Cayala  (which  localities  we  shall 
endeavor  to  designate  hereafter).  From  here  we  are  abruptly  trans- 
ferred by  the  author  to  Camuhibal  and  Xibalba,  localities  which,  in  spite 
of  the  obscurity  which  surrounds  them,  can  be  sufficiently  well  ascer- 
tained from  the  statement  that  great  deeds  were  enacted  there  “ in  the 
Seven  Caverns.''  From  here  they  were  frightened  away  and  wandered  for 
a long  time  with  their  god  Tohil  at  their  head,  suffering  great  hardships 
and  privations,  till  we  are  able  to  locate  them  on  their  arrival  at  Guate- 
mala. We  can  follow  them  to-day  on  their  route  by  the  names  of  the  places 
Mixtan,  Cavistan  and  Avilitz,  which  they  passed  through,  accompanied 
by  a tribe  called  the  Yaqui.^  The  whole  narration  is  of  loose  coherence,, 
without  any  chronological  statement  of  time.  Only  a few  circumstantial 
indications  of  historical  dates  can  be  elicited  from  this  Maya  authority 
(the  Popul  Vuh).  The  described  migration  hardly  falls  in  the  early 
epochs  of  Tultecan  and  Colhua  wanderings.  Our  impression  is  that  it 
rather  occurred  in  the  epoch  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  century,  and 
that  the  Quiche  tribe,  whose  fate  and  exploits  the  author  of  the  Popul 
Vuh  narrates,  broke  up  from  the  North  of  Culiacan  at  about  the  same 
epoch  when  the  seven  Chichimecan  hordes  began  to  invade  Anahuac,. 
but  that  the  Quiches  went  farther  South  and  finally  settled  in  Guatemala. 

While  the  Maya  and  the  Nahuatl  authorities  may  differ  somewhat  from 
each  other  in  regard  to  the  earliest  events  of  their  historjq  the  substance 
of  their  narrations  is  strikingly  identical,  and  it  is  only  when  passing  to 
the  narration  of  later  events,  that  each  of  these  authors  endeavors  to 
give  an  account  of  his  own  tribe.  The  inference,  therefore,  is  easily 
suggested  that  both  people  may  originally  have  sprung  from  the 
same  source,  and  that  at  a later  time  they  maj'-  have  separated  from 
each  other  and  each  followed  its  own  fortunes  by  a different  path. 
When  they  again  encountered  each  other  after  the  lapse  of  centuries,. 
each  of  them  may  have  been  so  entirely  changed  that  recognition  was 
difficult,  if  not  entirely  impossible.  After  what  has  been  stated  such  an 
hypothesis  is  reasonably  justified,  and  should  not  be  instantly  rejected. 
But  from  what  follows  it  will  be  seen  that  there  are  positive  grounds  for 
advancing  this  hypothesis  to  the  rank  of  a fact. 

• ^The  Nahoa  people  appear  in  the  chronicles  of  the  Quiche  and 
Cacchicpiels  always  under  the  name  of  Yaqui. 


29 


To  secure  this  fact,  we  must  now  refer  to  our  third  source  of  informa- 
tion, to  the  report  which  Sahao'un  has  left  us  re^'arding  the  prehistoric 
Mexicans.  Sahagun  is  often  quoted,  and  extracts  from  his  works  have 
'been  made  by  most  modern  writers  upon  this  subject.  We  are  therefore 
astonished  to  find,  that  certain  statements  which  corroborate  the  views 
we  have  advanced  above,  have  hitherto  escaped  the  attention  of  the 
readers  of  these  records.  As  we  intend  to  submit  this  chapter  of 
■Sahagun  to  close  inspection  it  will  be  desirable  to  translate  the  text  as 
literally  as  possible,  omitting  only  certain  of  the  louger  passages. 

SAHAGUN  “CONCERNING  THE  MEXICANS.”^ 

Numberless  years  ago  the  first  settlers  came  in  ships  and 

landed  at  a Northern  port,  which  from  that  cause  was  called  Panutla, 
now  Pantlan.  These  travellers,  having  the  snow-covered  mountains  and 
the  volcanoes  always  in  sight,  began  their  journey  with  a priest  at  their 
head,  who  carried  their  God  before  them,  and  in  this  way  they  finally 
■came  down  as  far  as  Guatemala. 

Still  their  first  settlement  was  Tamoanchan,  where  they  remained  for 
a long  time  under  the  constant  direction  of  their  Priests  and  Sooth- 
sayers, the  Amoaxagues,  who  understood  how  to  prepare  their  pictured 
annals.  Though  they  all  had  travelled  together,  they  (the  Priests) 
separated  themselves  from  them  and  carried  away  all  the  pictured 
annals,  in  which  their  sacred  rites  and  acts  had  been  described.  But 
before  they  left  they  made  the  following  statements  to  those  that 
remained  behind  : “Know  that  your  God  lays  upon  you  the  command  to 
remain  in  this  country.  He  makes  you  lords  and  proprietors  of  it. 
Your  God  will  return  from  whence  he  came  and  we  will  accompany 
him.” 

Of  all  those  wise  men  only  four  remained  behind.  They  were 
Oxomogo,  Cipactonal,  Tlaltecuic  and  Suchicoaco.  When  they  were 
alone  they  held  counsel  among  themselves  and  said : A time  will  come 
when  there  must  be  light  and  when  our  community  will  need  la.ws  for  its 
guidance.  But  how  shall  we  govern  this  people  while  their  God  is 
absent?  They  have  taken  away  our  Books;  what  can  we  do  without 
the  advice  of  Astrology  and  the  interpretation  of  dreams?  At  once  they 
set  to  work  and  made  a reckoning  of  the  days  and  nights  and  of  the 
Division  of  Time,  and  this  reckoning  has  always  been  observed,  so  long 
as  the  Tultecas,  the  Mexicans,  the  Tecpanecas  and  all  the  Chichimecas 
possessed  a government.  Only  it  is  not  possible  to  discover  distinctly 
from  this  reckoning  how  long  they  remained  at  Tamoanchan  ; but  it  was 
well  known  that  this  had  been  stated  in  the  Books  that  had  been  burned 
in  the  reign  of  the  King  Itzcohuatl. 

From  Tamoanchan  they  then  went  to  a town  called  Teotiuacan,  and 
here  they  took  steps  for  the  election  of  a leader.  Then  they  built  tombs 
iind  mounds  for  the  Sun  and  Moon,  and  though  it  is  not  easy  to  believe 

Sahagun,  Libro  X.,  Cap.  19,  parrafo  14. 


30 


that  all  this  had  been  done  by  the  hand  of  man,  it  is  nevertheless  true,, 
because  they  were  a giant  race.  This  we  see  clearly  to-day  on  the  great 
mountainous  hill  of  Cholula,  which  was  erected  with  lime  and  bricks  of 
adobe.  The  town  was  named  Teotiuacan,  because  Teutl  was  there, 
which  signified  God. 

While  they  all  remained  at  Tamoanchan,  some  of  the  families  left  and 
settled  in  a province  called  to-day  Olmeca-Vitztoti,  and  we  know  that 
they  practiced  all  kinds  of  abominations  and  witchcraft  in  the  most 
ancient  times,  because  their  chief,  the  Olmeca-Vitztoti,  had  made  a 
compact  with  the  Devil  and  received  his  name  in  consequence.  Of  him 

it  is  narrated  : And  there  was  a Cuexteco  who  was  the 

leader  of  the  Guaxtecas,  who  drank  five  glasses  of  wine,  whereby  he  lost 
his  reason;  he  kicked  away  his  mantle,  and  because  of  his  shame  he  fled 
to  Panotlan  with  all  his  vassals  and  with  those  who  spoke  his  language. 
But  the  others  remained  at  the  place  which  we  call  to-day  Toveime,  in 
their  own  language  Toompahan  and  in  romance  “our  neighbors.”  The 
modern  name  of  the  Guaxtecas  is  derived  from  that  of  their  chief.  . . 

(A  detailed  narration  of  his  sorceries  follows). 

After  order  and  good  government  had  been  maintained  for  along  time 
at  Tamoanchan,  they  removed  their  settlement  far  away  to  a place  called 
Sumiltepec.  Here  the  Lords,  the  Elders  and  the  Priests  came  together 
and  held  a council,  and  said  that  their  God  had  declared  that  they  should 
no  longer  remain  at  Sumiltepec,  but  that  they  must  wander  farther 
away  and  discover  new  territory,  and  for  that  reason  the  young  and  old, 
the  men  and  the  women,  set  out  again  upon  their  wandering,  proceeding 
at  first  very  slowly,  until  they  came  to  Teotiuacan,  where  they  elected 
those  who  should  lead  and  rule  over  them;  and  so  every  chief  accom- 
panied those  who  spoke  his  language,  and  each  division  (cuadrilla) 
carried  at  its  head  the  God  that  belonged  to  it.  The  Tultecas  always 
went  first ; then  came  the  Otomies.  When  these  with  their  leader  had 
reached  Coatepec,  they  w’ent  no  farther  with  the  others,  for  from  thi& 
point  their  chief  led  them  to  the  mountains  where  he  wished  them  to 
make  a settlement,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  they  always  made  their 
sacrifices  upon  mountain  heights  and  began  to  build  their  dwellings 
upon  the  declivities.  But  the  Tultecas,  the  Mexicans  and  the  Nahoas, 
and  all  the  others,  went  on  their  way  over  the  plains  and  the  high,  cold, 
desert  places  (paramos)  that  they  might  discover  new  lands,  and  each 
family  was  preceded  by  its  God  as  a recognized  leader.  No  tradition, 
however,  remains  behind  of  the  length  of  time  they  wandered  in  this  way. 
At  length  they  came  to  a valley  surrounded  by  high  hills,  where  they 
rested  themselves  and  wept  over  the  many  hardships  and  griefs  tliej’’ 
endured,  for  they  sufiered  hunger  and  great  thirst.  In  this  valley  there 
were  seven  caverns,  which  they  selected  for  their  places  of  worship, 
and  here  they  sacrificed  ever  afterwards,  according  to  their  custom. 
The  memory  and  the  reckoning  of  all  the  time  that  they  remained  there 
are  alike  entirely  lost.  ’ 


31 


While  now  the  Tultecas  with  the  others  remained  there,  it  is  reported 
that  their  God  spoke  to  them  in  particular  (que  Su  Dios  les  hablo  a parte) 
and  commanded  them  to  return  back  to  the  same  place  from  whence 
they  came,  and  not  to  remain  there  any  longer.  When  the  Tultecas 
heard  this,  they  inaugurated  sacrificial  rites  in  the  seven  caverns  before 
their  departure,  and  afterwards  they  all  arrived  at  Tollantzinco,  from 
whence  they  moved  at  a later  time  to  Xicotitlan,  which  to-day  is  called 
Tulla. 

In  later  years  the  Michoaques,  with  their  leader  Amimitl,  returned 
from  that  place  and  settled  towards  the  setting  of  the  sun,  where  they 
still  dwell  to-day.  Little  by  little  the  Nahoas  came  back,  whom  we 
to-day  call  Tecpanecas.  The  Acoloaques,  the  Huxotzincas  and  the 
Tlascaltecas  came  back  also.  Each  of  these  families  came  here  by  itself 
where  Mexico  now  stands.  And  finally  came  also  the  Mexicans  them- 
selves, who  had  remained  behind,  for  to  them  likewise  their  God  had 
said  *****  “For  that  reason  all  the  natives  of  that  country 
are  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  they  had  been  brought  up  in  those  Seven 
Caverns,  and  that  from  them  they  had  migrated  down  to  their  present 
abodes.  But  that.is  not  true,  for  they  did  not  move  away,  but  only  went 
thither  that  they  might  bring  their  offerings  from  there  at  the  time  when 
they  (the  Tultecas)  dwelt  in  that  valley.”  . . . (Then  follows  a short 

sketch  of  the  Aztecs,  of  whom  we  already  know,  and  an  explanation  to 
the  elfect  that  all  those  nations  which  came  from  the  North  called  them- 
selves Chichimecas,  as  also  those  which  inhabited  the  plateaux  and  had 
been  assimilated  with  them.)  “ All  these  Chichimecas,”  says  Sahagun, 
“ spoke  the  Nahuatl  language,  yet  with  notable  difierences  of  dialect. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  nations  which  dwelt  in  the  East,  as  the  Olmeca- 
Vixtoti  and  Nonohualca,  did  not  call  themselves  Chichimecas.” 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  add  a few  explanations  to  this  account  of 
Sahagun. 

What  portion  of  our  globe  had  been  the  home  of  those  landed  at 
Panuco?  The  answer  to  this  question  has  been  the  object  of  long-con- 
tinued speculation.  Thus  much  is  certain  : they  must  have  come  from  a 
highly  civilized  country.  Hence  no  reasonable  ground  can  be  alleged  for 
placing  its  source  in  the  North  of  our  Continent.  Were  we  to  allow  our 
views  to  be  guided  by  circumstantial  evidence  (since  no  other  is  at  hand) 
it  is  the  antique  civilization  of  Western  Asia  which  affords  most  points 
of  similarity  to  that  of  ancient  Mexico.  But  by  what  fate  these 
foreigners  were  driven  away  from  so  distant  a home,  what  means  of 
locomotion  they  employed  and  by  what  routes  they  chanced  to  enter  the 
Panuco  river,  it  will  be  impossible  ever  to  ascertain.  On  all  such  interest- 
ing points  tradition  is  absolutely  silent.  We  only  read  the  statement 
that  their  first  appearance  was  in  canoes,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  said 
river;  and  that  some  time  later,  one  part  of  them  started  for  the  North- 
west of  Culiacan,  and  another  part  for  the  South  of  Yucatan.  We  can 
not  fairly  presume  that  they  would  have  come  from  either  of  these 


32 


regions  simply  to  return  thither.  We  must  therefore  rather  conclude 
that  they  came  from  the  North  or  the  East.  In  the  North  our  e^'es  meet 
with  the  vast  half  of  our  continent,  destitute  at  that  time  of  any  traces 
of  that  peculiar  kind  of  civilization,  which  these  foreigners  so  rapidly 
established  in  Central  America.  On  the  East  lay  the  boundless  waters 
of  the  Gulf  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  If  they  came  by  this  route,  the 
rushing  waves  have  long  since  buried  the  secrets  of  their  path  behind 
the  furrowdng  keels  of  their  barks. 

Nor  do  we  gain  any  information  in  regard  to  the  number  of  those  that 
arrived.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  arrived  in  large  numbers, 
but  quite  the  reverse.  If  they  were  wise  men,  who  possessed  a knowd- 
edge  of  the  stars,  who  could  calculate  periods  of  time  and  were  acquainted 
with  worldly  arts,  then  indeed  but  a small  number  of  them  would  be 
required  to  overawe  the  rude  savages,  to  change  them  first  into  servants 
and  afterwards  into  willing  followers,  who  would  accompany  them  like 
sons  of  the  same  family  on  their  later  migrations,  to  subdue  their  neigh- 
bors and  afterwards  to  conquer  more  distant  tribes. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  site  of  Tamoanchan  was  any  longer  recog- 
nized at  the  time  of  the  Conquest.  We  have  already  stated  that  the  word 
in  the  Huasteca  language  signifies  “the  place  where  the  serpents  live.” 
But  the  ruined  pyramids  of  Tuzpan  and  Papantla,  as  w’ell  as  those  of 
Mizantla,  furnish  hints  where  w’e  may  look  for  the  forgotten  place. 
These  very  names  are  not  original  in  the  Huasteca  or  Maya  language. 
They  were  given  by  the  Nahoas,  probably  by  the  Totonca  tribe.  In  the 
language  of  the  Huastecas  this  kind  of  pyramidal  construction  was 
called  I'axil^  (templo,  cue,  baluarte)  and  Cayalha  is  the  first  place 
mentioned  in  the  Popul  Vuh,  where  the  leader  of  those  who  landed 
found  the  first  ear  of  maize.  Cayala  in  Maya  signifies  xoater  of  the  fishes. 

The  departure  of  the  leader  for  the  South,  carrying  the  Books  of  the 
Council  and  the  Gods,  apparently  for  further  colonization,  and  the  state 
of  abandonment  in  which  the  deserted  settlers  found  themselves,  are 
dramatically  described.  The  tale  is  evidently  gathered  by  Sahagun  from 
the  lips  of  the  Indians,  and  we  accept  it  without  hesitation  or  comment  on 
its  intrinsic  credibility.  It  is  however  not  reported  in  the  Popol-Vuh. 
The  Popol-Vuh^  at  this  point  enlarges  on  events  which  concern  the  Maya 
tribe.  We  now  learn  from  Sahagun  how  the  deserted  band,  the  future 
Tultecas,  endeavored  to  shape  their  destiny.  They  organized  themselves 
into  an  independent  body.  They  reconstructed  from  memory  the  Book 
of  the  Council  and  also  the  traditional  calendar,  probably  preserving 
its  fundamental  features.  They  gained  in  number  and  in  strength,  so  as 
to  send  a colony  to  the  mountains  of  Huasteca.  Still  further  to  the 
West  they  discovered  the  beautiful  plain  of  Teotihuacan,  inhabited  by 
Otomies,  and  there  laid  the  foundations  for  a central  sanctuary.  We  find 
them  also  busied  at  Sumiltepec.  If  we  might  venture  to  change  this 


‘See  Zenteno,  Noticia  de  la  lengua  Huasteca,  vocabulary  appendix. 
^Popol-Vuh,  ed.  Brasseur,  Paris,  1861,  page  215. 


33 


word  into  Samiltepec,  supposing  a very  probable  error  of  print  or  of 
■composition,  we  should  receive  from  such  correction  a hint  where  to  look 
for  this  place,  which  can  no  longer  be  found  on  any  map.  Sainilli,  or 
more  correctly  xamilli,  signifies  “brick”  and  tepee  “mountain.”  We 
might  then  recognize  the  Pyramid  of  Cholula  in  this  mountain  of  bricks, 
to  which  they  transferred  their  residence  from  Tamoanchan,  and  when 
we  read  farther  on,  that  from  this  place  they  moved  very  “ leisurely  ” to 
Teotihuacan,  the  discovery  and  fixing  of  that  locality  which  is  so  near 
Cholula,  is  rendered  more  certain.  In  this  description  of  their  gaining 
ground  on  the  high  plateaux  of  the  West,  we  obtain  a glimpse  of  the 
manner  in  which  these  foreign  colonists,  taking  the  shortest  course 
from  the  coast,  were  able  to  reach  the  highlands,  and  obtain  a very  strong 
confirmation  of  their  special  agency  in  establishing  those  central  points 
of  civilization  always  recognized  as  prehistoric,  to-wit : Cholula^  and 
Teotihuacan. 

Their  restless  leaders  did  not  give  the  people  time  to  settle  in 
Xamiltepec.  They  led  them  onward  to  Teotihuacan,  where  the  whole 
force  w;js  put  in  marching  order,  and  as  the  author  states,  separated 
according  to  the  languages  spoken  by  the  tribes.  Of  such  tribes,  how- 
ever, the  Otomies  alone  are  mentioned.  This  tribe,  tenaciously  clinging 
to  the  soil  of  its  forefathers,  seems  to  have  been  left  at  home  as  unfitted 
for  distant  expeditions.  Yet  we  may  fairly  suppose  that  some  of 
those  tribes,  with  which  the  adventurers  had  come  in  contact  on  -their 
line  of  operation  between  Tamoanchan  and  Teotihuacan,  may  have  been 
induced  by  force  or  by  persuasion,  and  by  anticipations  of  good  luck,  to 
join  in  the  novel  enterprise. 

The  Tultecas,  we  rend,  marched  always  at  the  head  of  the  column. 
This  is  the  first  mention  of  them  we  have  in  the  account.  It  might 
almost  seem  from  the  statement  that  these  Tultecas  had  joined  themselves 
to  those  leaders  for  the  first  time  at  Teotihuacan.  This  may  indeed 
have  been  the  case,  when  we  consider  that  the  foreign  immigrants  had 
some  time  before  established  this  sanctuary,  and  that  friends  must  have 
been  living  there,  who  took  an  interest  in  this  movement  of  their 
co-nationals,  and  had  furnished  them  provisions,  guides  and  addition  to 
their  numbers.  Possibly  also  the  settlers  in  Teotihuacan  had  for  these 
very  reasons  claimed  the  leadership,  and  should  w’e  not  be  ready  to 
believe  that  they  had  at  that  time  adopted  the  name  of  Tultecas,  we  may 
suppose  that  Sahagun  only  followed  the  tradition  according  to  which  the 
first  tribe  which  returned  back  from  the  North,  about  the  year  54+  A.  D., 
in  order  to  settle  at  Tollan,  was  usually  designated  as  the  Tultecas. 
Whether  we  are  right  or  not,  the  distinct  statement,  that  the  said  tribe 
of  Tultecas,  with  another  from  Tamoanchan,  jointly  undertook  an 
expedition  from  Teotihuacan,  directed  towards  the  North  for  further 
•exploration,  is  very  interesting. 

^Read  on  these  explorations  Brantz  Mayer,  Mexico,  as  it  was,  and  as 
it  is;  New  York:  Wiley  & Putnam,  1844,  page  240. 


34 


Led  by  that  tribe  they  wandered  in  a Northerly  direction,  suffering- 
much  from  hunger  and  thirst,  through  lonesome  wilds,  over  high  and 
cold  tracts,  till  they  arrived  at  a deep  valley  where  they  found  shelter  in 
seven  caverns.  A shorter  or  more  graphic  description  of  the  wanderings 
of  a national  caravan,  self-reliant  and  aggressive,  moving  over  the  high 
plateaux  of  Guanajuato,  Zacatecas,  Guadalajara,  Durango  and  Cinaloa, 
can  scarcely  be  given.  Nothing  is  more  strongly  emphasized  in  all  the 
traditions  of  these  people  than  their  stern  combats  with  Nature.  They 
never  chose  to  give  a moving  description  of  bloody  encounters  with 
formidable  enemies,  but  they  chiefly  recount  the  thirst,  the  hunger,  and 
especially  the  cold  which  they  had  to  endure,  and  how  they  struggled 
against  these  three  enemies  and  finally  overcame  them  with  the  help  of 
their  astute  priests,  whom  they  classed  with  their  Gods. 

Where  the  valley  with  the  seven  caverns  was  situated,  how  long  they 
remained  there,  and  how  widely  they  dispersed  after  they  had  grown 
strong,  and  what  wild  tribes  they  subjected,  on  these  points  Sahagun,  as 
well  as  all  other  native  and  Spanish  chroniclers,  are  silent.  One  thing 
only,  already  mentioned,  is  communicated  by  the  chronicler  Ixtlilxochitl : 
that  two  of  the  Tultec  chiefs  rebelled,  retired  to  Culiacan  and  afterwards 
wandered  Southwards  to  Tullan.  Culiacan  is  the  only  place  lying  in  a 
Northerlj^  direction  to  which  we  can  follow  their  wanderings  and 
settlements  with  historical  accuracy.  Even  from  this  information  alone 
we  gain  much,  for  we  obtain  the  direction  of  their  North-western  line  of 
march  and  a distinct  locality  from  whence  they  may  have  spread  in 
different  directions.  In  the  valley  of  Tuitan,  in  Zacatecas,  we  come 
upon  a great  extent  of  ruins,  called  La  Quemada,  which  recent  investiga- 
tions have  so  far  failed  to  adequately  describe.  Higher  up  we  meet  the 
very  suggestive  names  Durango  and  Chihuahua,  and  in  their  Southern 
boundary  we  find  a tribe  speaking  an  idiom,  Sabaibo,^  which  to-day 
bears  the  same  name,  and  has  a strong  resemblance  to  Chihuahua  and 
Xibalba.  It  will  be  difficult  for  us  now  to  discover  the  grounds  upon 
which  the  Spaniards  gave  two  of  the  names  above  mentioned  to  those 
two  provinces.  But  we  have  the  linguistic  license  to  change  the  modern 
name  Durango  into  the  Nahuatl  form  of  pronunciation,  which  would  be 
Tulanco,  meaning  “ in  Tula.”  We  must  here  remark  that  theNahoas  as 
well  as  the  Mayas  always  designated  Tula^  as  the  cradle  of  their  race, 


^Carta  Etnografica  de  Mexico,  por  el  Lie.  31.  Orozco  y Berra:  Mexico, 
1804. 

^There  has  been  much  trifling  in  finding  the  true  etymology  of  this 
name.  Edw.  B.  Taylor,  “ Analmac,”  London,  1861,  changes  it  into  the 
Asiatic  Turan.  The  Mexican  historians  spell  it  Tullan  or  Tollan, 
deriving  it  evidently  from  the  word  tul,  which  means  reed,  in  accord- 
ance with  its  hieroglyphic  coat  of  arms,  as  represented  in  the  Codex 
Mendoza  by  a bundie  of  reeds.  The  anonymous  author  of  the  Katunes 
changes  Tulan  to  Tulapan.  We  must  take  care  not  to  give  too  much 
credit  to  the  tendency,  which  all  nations  have  shown,  to  explain  by  means 
of  their  own  idiom  topographical  names  and  sounds  transmitted  to  them 


35 


therefore  both  of  them  in  remote  times  must  have  dwelt  in  common  in 
Tula.  Both  of  them  speak  also  of  a valley  with  seven  caves,  Chico- 
mostoc  in  Naliuatl  and  Wukub-pek  in  Maya.  In  like  manner  we  have 

by  the  earlier  inhabitants.  We  think  Tulan  to  be  best  explained  by  the 
Maya  language,  in  which  till  means  ahundo,nce,  and  the  aftix  d the  pre- 
position in;  hence  “in  the  land  of  abundance.”  It  is  in  this  sense  that 
Tulan  is  always  mentioned  in  the  chronicles  and  heroic  songs  of  the 
Maya  Quiches  and  Cakchiqueles,  as  the  land  in  which  they  found  repose, 
a home  and  happiness.  In  these  songs,  record  is  also  made  of  four  such 
Tulans.  The  one  lay  towards  the  rising  of  the  sun,  hence  toward 
the  Eastern  Ocean,  and  perhaps  Tula,  halfway  between  Tampico  and 
S.  Liiis  de  Potosi,  a second  at  the  setting  of  the  sun.  Now  if  this 
second  Tulan  in  some  of  these  songs  appears  in  combination  with 
Xibalba  also,  and  is  designated  as  the  Tulan  of  the  Seven  Caves,  to 
which  “their  Gods  had  brought  them  from  the  Tulan  of  the  East.”  we 
can  not  help  inferring  from  this  observation,  that  we  have  here  in  sub- 
stance before  us,  the  same  tale  and  tradition,  which  Father  Sahagun  had 
gathered  among  the  Nahoas.  The  Tamoanchan  of  the  one  is  the  first 
and  Eastern  Tulan  of  the  other,  and  the  Chicomoztoc  is  the  second 
Tulan.  It  was  but  natural  that  in  Sahagun’s  narration,  the  Nahoa  should 
give  the  leadership  to  their  cognate  tribe,  the  Tultecas,  whilst  the  Quiche 
should  bring  into  prominence  such  deeds  as  were  performed  by  their 
ancient  cognates,  the  Huastecas  ; and  we  must  not  forget  that  the  foreign 
conquerors,  their  leaders,  were  only  few  in  number,  and  that  the  Huas- 
teca  or  other  Maya  natives,  who  had  become  their  disciples,  formed  the 
stock  of  the  colonists,  who  were  carried  away  to  settle  among  the 
Chichimecas.  Being  educated  to  a higher  standard  of  culture,  they  had 
gradually  assimilated  to  their  teachers,  and  had  thereby  become  able  to 
transplant  the  nobler  modes  of  life  into  the  distant  South  of  Guatemala 
in  later  centuries,  where  they  were  found  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest 
divided  into  the  three  nations,  the  Quiche,  Cakchiquel  and  Zutigil. 
By  the  third  Tulan  probably  the  proper  Tultecan  city  of  Tullan  is 
meant,  13  miles  North  of  the  city  of  Mexico;  and  the  fourth  Tullan, 
“ where  God  is,”  seems  to  have  been  situated  in  Chiapas,  near  Guatemala ; 
this  suggestion  being  given  by  the  author  of  the  chronicle,  who  com- 
plains that  “ the  Zotziles  had  prohibited  his  people  from  entering  that 
sanctuary.”  The  Zotziles  and  Tzendales  are  to-day  two  powerful  Maya 
tribes,  and  occupy  the  central  portion  of  Chiapas,  from  which  the  rapid 
waters  of  the  Tabasco  and  Uzumazinta  rivers  roll  down  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  in  which  the  ruined  sanctuaries  of  Palenque  and  Ocosingo 
were  discovered.  Now,  if  the  Maya-speaking  people  gave  their 
principal  migratory  stations  the  name  of  Tulan,  it  seems  as  if  tlie 
Nahoas  had  given  theirs  that  of  Tlapallan.  Hue-hue  tlapallan,  to  be 
translated  the  most  ancient  Tlapallan,  could  be  located  at  Tamoan- 
chan, the  place  where  the  Calendar  was  made  or  recomposed  after 
the  departure  of  the  Gods  with  the  Book  of  Council.  Hue-Tlapallan, 
ancient  Tlapallan,  could  be  identified  with  the  country  surrounding 
Culiacan,  and  by  Tlapallan,  without  any  prefix,  we  know  that  Chiapas 
was  meant,  the  land  to  which  Quetzalcohuatl  resorted,  and  which  Cortes 
was  shown  on  his  expedition  to  Honduras.  He  crossed  this  Tlapallan 
on  a road  that  led  only  a few  miles  distant  from  Palenque.  The  trans- 
lation of  the  Naliuatl  word  Tlapallan  is  “Land  of  the  Varied  Colors.” 
Therefore  the  meaning  of  the  words  Tulan  and  Tlapallan  appears  to 
give  the  reflex  of  similar  ideas.  Though  those  wandering  colonists,  in 
reality,  must  have  been  suflerers  wherever  they  halted  and  settled,  the 
past,  in  imagination,  presented  itself  always  in  the  brilliancy  of  a 
Golden  Age. 


36 


■no  difficulty  in  recognizing  the  name  Chibalba,  so  often  mentioned  in  the 
Popol  Viih  as  the  most  ancient  abode  of  clouds  and  darkness,  where  the 
ancestors  of  the  Ma3’-a-Quiches  astonished  the  barbarians  in  Chihuahua, 
or  perhaps  the  modern  Zobaibo,  with  their  magic  arts.  Even  Zuivan, 
which  Maya  authorities  always  place  after  the  word  Tula,  should  be 
added  to  this  group  of  nomenclatures,  all  of  which,  in  spite  of  their 
various  spelling,  indicate  the  same  district.  To  this  group  also  Cibola 
belongs,  one  of  the  seven  cities  sought  for  by  Coionado.  But  we  have 
strong  grounds  for  doubting  that  the  migration  of  the  Quiches  from 
Chibalba  down  to  Guatemala  occurred  at  the  epoch  of  the  wandering  of 
the  Tultecas,  The  Quiches  seem  to  have  remained  in  the  North  for  a 
long  time,  and  then  to  have  joined  the  great  invasion  of  the  Chichimecas, 
which  took  place  in  the  tenth  or  the  eleventh  century.  As  to  the  return 
of  the  Tultecas,  we  refer  to  the  quoted  statements  from  Ixtlilxochitl’s 
work. 

We  have  something  to  say  further,  in  regard  to  the  sources  of  this 
information.  They  are  as  authentic  as  we  could  desire.  Sahagun  tells 
ns  in  the  prologue  of  his  work  how  he  obtained  his  facts.  He  took  up 
his  residence  at  Tepeopulco,  a large  Indian  village  near  Tezcuco,  and 
with  the  help  of  their  chief,  who  had  become  a Christian,  and  who  was 
there  called  Don  Diego  Mendoza,  he  brought  together  about  a dozen 
Indians  well  acquainted  with  the  early  history  of  their  country.  To 
these  he  added  four  of  his  own  so-called  grammatical  parishioners,  and 
handed  them  a plan  and  disposition  of  the  subjects  of  which  he  wished  to 
treat.  It  was  the  business  of  the  older  Indians  to  extract  the  meaning 
from  the  original  painted  annals,  and  to  set  in  order  the  various  state- 
ments of  the  text  near  their  appropriate  symbols,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  four  granimaticians  obtained  from  the  Indians  an  understanding  of 
the  meaning  of  the  pictures  and  translated  it  into  the  Nahuatl  language. 
Sahagun  then  translated  this  text  into  Spanish.  From  this  results  the 
formality  of  diction  in  the  chapters  on  early  history  as  compared  with 
what  follows  and  was  of  Sahagun’s  own  composition.  None  of  the  other 
historians  have  employed  such  a methodical  system  of  learning  their 
secrets  from  the  Indians  themselves.  Although  the  manuscript  of 
Sahagun  was  first  published  by  Bustamante  at  Mexico  in  1829,  and  after- 
wards republished  by  Kingsborough  at  London,  the  facts  contained  in  it 
were  already  known  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Superior  of  his  order 
took  the  MSS.  away  from  Sahagun,  and  Duran,  Tobar,  Acosta,  Torque- 
mada  and  other  authors,  have  drawn  facts  from  them.  Torquemada 
confesses  this  frankly.  We  were  therefore  induced  to  select  Sahagun  as 
our  best  authority,  and  taking  his  text  for  a foundation,  to  locate  the 
first  germs  of  the  so-called  Tultec  race,  not  at  the  North,  but  at  a landing- 
place  on  the  coast  of  the  Mexican  Gulf. 

It  only  remains  for  us  to  endeavor  to  follow  the.  march  of  that  troop  of 
wise  men,  who  separated  themselves  from  the  small  colony  at  Tamoan- 
chan,  taking  the  holy  books  wjth  them,  and  directing  those  whom  they  left 


37 


behind  to  await  their  return.  In  regard  to  the  direction  they  went  and 
about  their  fate  nothing  in  particular  is  said.  No  Nahoa  writer,  as  we  be- 
lieve, has  ever  taken  up  this  subject.  Were  it  not  for  the  single  document 
written  by  an  anonymous  Maya  author,  we  should  be  entirely  in  the  dark 
with  regard  to  the  deeds  performed  by  those  Wise  Men.  The  Katunes  of 
Maya  History,  which  we  have  quoted  on  various  occasions,  although 
very  much  abridged,  afford  us  an  insight  into  the  gradual  colonization 
and  the  settlements  formed  by  the  invaders.  A synchronous  history  of 
the  two  consanguineous  tribes,  after  their  separation  in  Tamoanchan, 
could  be  restored  in  chronological  sequence  to  a certain  extent,  from  the 
middle  of  the  third  to  the  eleventh  century.  To  do  this  is  not  our  present 
task.  We  only  wish  to  draw  attention  to  certain  points,  that  may  become 
of  importance,  when  the  task  of  penetrating  deeper  into  that  mysterious 
epoch  of  American  prehistory  is  undertaken. 

When  we  inspect,  on  the  map,  the  Atlantic  coast-line,  from  Panuco 
Southwards  to  Honduras,  we  observe  the  openings  of  four  large  gulfs. 
There  is  first  the  double  Gulf  of  Tampico,  then  that  of  Los  Terminos,. 
also  called  Xicalanco;  the  third  is  the  Gulf  of  Bacalar,  or  Chetumal, 
and  the  fourth  the  Golfo  Dulce,  with  its  great  inland-lake  of  Itzabal. 
Beginning  at  Panuco  and  ending  at  Itzabal,  the  whole  coast  and  adjacent 
interior  is  ancient  Maya  ground  and  territory.  As  far  as  the  invasions 
of  the  Nahoas,  about  the  eleventh  century,  had  made  them  acquainted 
with  that  country,  they  had  called  the  inhabitants  of  it  Olmecas.  It  is 
from  the  lips  of  Columbus  that  we  hear  for  the  first  time  the  name 
Maya.  He  picked  it  up  at  a point  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Golfo 
Dulce,  on  his  fourth  voyage.^  It  is  not  without  significance  that 
tradition  always  designates  three  of  the  above-named  gulfs,  the  Laguna 
de  los  Terminos,  that  of  Bacalar  and  that  of  Panuco  as  the  landing- 
places  of  the  early  settlers,  and  the  following  considerations  will  become 
interesting  in  the  highest  degree.  Directly  in  the  neighborhood  of  those 
gulfs  we  meet  with  ruins  of  the  greatest  importance.  In  the  plain 
South  of  Panuco  lie  those  of  Fapantla  and  Misantla.  On  the  Laguna  de 
los  Terminos,  overlooking  it  from  a height,  stand  those  of  Palenque. 
On  the  gulf  of  Bacalar  we  find  the  ruins  of  Yumpeten  (Island  of  the 
Lord).  On  the  fourth  gulf,  that  of  Itzabal  or  Golfo  Dulce,  of  which 
however  tradition  makes  no  mention,  we  find  the  large  ruins  of  Quirigua 
and  Copan.  The  character  of  those  ruins  is  everywhere  the  same — a 
truncated  pyramid,  approached  by  a flight  of  steps  {teocalU  in  Nahuatl 
and  Ku  in  Maya)  either  isolated  or  surrounded  by  other  constructions. 
This  leads  us  to  infer  that  the  same  people  who  landed  at  Panuco,  and 
who  built  their  teocalli  in  Anahuac,  Zacatecas,  and  elsewhere,  might  also 
have  made  the  constructions  which  exist  from  Panuco  Southwards  to 


’This  interesting  incident  is  reported  by  P.  Martyr  de  Angleria, 
Ocean.  Decadae,  iii..  Lib.  IV.,  from  which  we  extract  only  the  following- 
passage  : “ In  magno  illo  tractu  regiones  sunt  dnae;  Taya  haec,  Maya 
ilia  nominatur.” 


38 


the  Golfo  Dulce.  And  we  can  well  suppose  that,  landing,  from  their 
canoes  and  leaving  a colony  at  Taraoanchan,  the  Wise  Men  may  have 
navigated  the  coasts,  taking  advantage  of  the  protecting  bays,  and  have 
taken  possession  of  the  elevated  and  healthy  headlands,  and  that  after- 
wards they  pursued  their  work  by  colonization  farther  into  the  interior. 

Should  the  above  list  of  constructions  of  a similar  character,  erected 
in  localities  having  the  same  natural  conditions,  and  situated  upon  the 
same  coast,  not  offer  sufficient  evidence  of  the  course  of  the  early 
Central  American  colonization,  and  proof  that  Tamoanchan  was  the 
place  from  which  it  started,  we  can  strengthen  the  argument  by  the 
following  additional  facts.  We  turn  again  to  Sahagun,  who  calls  the 
people  living  on  the  coast  between  Panuco  and  Tabasco,  Olmeca.  Begin- 
ning with  Panuco  and  the  Huasteca  province  he  enumerates  them  in  this 
order : Olmeca-Vixtoti,  Olmeca-Anahuac  and  Olmeca-Nonohualco.  Of 
the  first  Olmecas  he  tells  us  at  length  of  their  reputation  as  sorcerers. 
They  could  change  themselves  into  all  possible  forms  of  animals,  such 
us  serp(‘nts,  tigers,  eagles  and  wolves.  If  we  analyze  the  name  Vixtoti, 
we  find  in  the  first  syllable  a primitive  word  that  recurs  in  all  Maya 
dialects  with  such  variations  as  linguistic  usage  permits.  Itz,  uitz, 
quix,  means  a sorcerer.^  The  savage  Mayas,  surprised  by  these  arts, 
had  good  reason  to  give  the  new  comers  such  a title.  The  second 
syllable  of  Vixtoti  is  the  Nahuatl  word  teuctli,  meaning  a lord  or  sire, 
corrupted  into  toti  by  the  natives,  and  by  the  Spaniards  into  teule.  As 
fai-  as  we  know  the  word  vix  does  not  appear  in  any  connection  with 
persons  or  localities  that  belong  to  the  Olmeca-Anahuac,  or  that  of  the 
Olmeca-Nonohualco,  but  it  reappears  again  in  the  Peninsula  of  Yucatan. 
There  we  find  the  famous  Chichen-Itza  and  Itzamal,  places  recognized 
as  centres  of  civilization.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note,  that  the  Maya 
annals  report  ihe  name  of  the  invaders  who  landed  atBacalar,  as  having 
been  the  Itzaes,  and  that  they  came  from  Tulapan  and  belonged  to  the 
house  of  Nonoalco.  So  also  the  Spanish  chroniclers  of  Yucatan,  repeat- 
ing the  traditions  of  the  people,  state  that  it  was  Itzamna,  who  in  primi- 
tive times  organized  and  civilized  the  country.^  Analyzing  the  Maya 
word  Itzamna  we  find  it  composed  of  Itza,  sorcerer,  and  wa,  house,  and 
we  shall  do  well  to  correct  the  prevailing  idea  that  Itzamna  was  a person, 
and  adopt  the  more  probable  supposition  that  the  natives  wished  to 

Tn  the  language  of  Chiapas  it  is  Hix;  in  Quiche  and  Caxchiquel, 
Yitz  and  Itz;  in  Maya  proper  lo  (pronounced  ids)  ; in  Huasteca  Chix 
and  Huitz.  Zenteno  quotes  as  an  example  : Huitz-ata,  Gods-house.” 

^Las  Casas,  in  his  Historia  Apologetica,  Cap.  123,  gathered  his 
information,  as  we  suppose,  among  the  Tzendales  and  Zotziles.  He 
spells  Izona  and  in  another  place  At^amma,  by  which  the  important 
sj’llable  itz  is  secured,  which  was  dropped  by  later  writers,  so  that 
Itzamna  was  cut  down  to  the  less  suggestive  form  of  Zamna.  Also 
Historia  de  Yucatan,  lib.  iv.,  Cap.  3,  and  Landa,  Relacion 
d.  1.  Cosas  de  Yucatan,  ed.  Brasseur,  Paris,  1864,  § 5,  page  30,  and  § 35, 
and  page  216.  The  analysis  of  the  name  would  give  Itzaob-na,  House, 
and  if  nd  is  accented.  Mother  of  the  Izaes. 


39 


indicate  thereby  the  dwelling  of  the  Itza  colony,  which  had  settled  in 
their  country.  As  early  as  the  eleventh  century,  mulTitudes  of  Nahoas 


FIGURE  OF  A [SUPPOSKD]  BEARDED  ITZA  OFFP^RING  SACRIFICE,  FROM  A 
COLLECTION  OF  PHOTOGRAPHS  OF  YUCATAN  SCULPTURE 
BY  A.  LE  PLONGEON. 

had  penetrated  into  Yucatan  and  had  settled  at  Mayapan,  and  we  read  in 
the  Katunes,  that  from  the  neighboring  mountains  of  Tabasco  a tribe 
named  Vitzes  came  to  assist  their  clansmen,  and  were  instrumental  in 
destroying  the  seat  of  the  tyrants.  We  may  recognize  in  them  the  brother 
tribe  of  Quiche,  the  etymology  of  which  name  appears  to  have  been  derived 
in  this  way.  Finally  we  find  this  word  in  the  form  Itzabal  (Itzaob-al — 
sons  of  the  Itzaes)  applied  to  a locality,  and  a laguna  at  the  foot  of  the 
plateau  of  Copan,  to-day  the  inland  lake  of  Golfo  Dulce. 

If  we  now  condense  the  information  already  given  we  shall  arrive  at 
the  following  conclusions. 

The  nationality  of  the  men  who  landed  at  Panuco  can  not  be  ascer- 
tained. They  came  in  canoes,  very  probably  from  a Northerly  direction, 
and  under  this  assumption  they  must  have  travelled  or  sailed  very  near 
the  coast  of  Tamaulipas,  or  higher  up  along  the  South-western  curve  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Soon  after  their  arrival,  this  force  separated.  A 
part  of  it  followed  the  direction  of  the  coast  towards  the  South  and 
became  instrumental  in  civilizing  the  Maya  tribes  of  Central  America. 
At  such  places,  where  in  later  times,  the  Nahoas  came  in  immediate 
contact  with  the  Mayas,  they  gave  them  the  name  of  “ Olmecas/*  By 


40 


what  name,  however,  the  other  Maya  tribes  of  Yucatan,  Chiapas  and 
Guatemala  were  called  by  the  Nahoas  is  unknown  to  us.  The  other 
portion,  for  whom  we  will  retain  the  name  Tultecas,  ascended  the  high- 
lands towards  the  West.  There  they  came  in  contact  with  the  Quina- 
metin  upon  the  mountains,  and  lower  down  upon  the  plains  of  Tlascala 
they  found  tribes  that  very  probably  also  spoke  the  Maya  language.  An 
inundation  surprised  them,  a pyramid  was  built  at  Cholula  for  protec- 
tion, and  it  served  also  as  a temple.  After  they  had  become  convinced 
of  the  subjection  and  obedience  of  these  Mayas,  they  penetrated  into- 
the  neighboring  lands  of  the  Otomi  tribe,  where  they  selected  the  plain 
of  Teotihuacan  as  the  central  point  of  their  civilization.  Holding  these 
strong  positions  in  the  rear,  they  fearlessly  penetrated  farther  towards 
the  North  through  barren  tracts  of  country  to  the  neighborhood  of  the 
so-called  Chichi mecas.  After  they  had  lived  and  worked  among  them 
for  the  space  of  about  250  years,  a dissension  broke  out  among  their  old 
leaders,  and  in  consequence  of  it,  two  families  left  the  country,  deter- 
mined to  join  their  Southern  parent  colony.  They  arrived  at  its  oldest 
settlement  at  Huexotla  (the  City  of  Willows)  the  Huastec  Tamland, 
where  a future  dwelling  place  in  Tulla  is  assigned  them.  Some  decades 
afterwards  another  family  of  their  tribe,  the  Mixcohua,  followed  them 
from  Culiacan.  They  formed  a settlement  at  Culhuacan  upon  the  lake  of 
Mexico.  Both  these  families  may  be  considered  as  the  promoters  of 
civilization  among  the  Chichimeca  and  Otomi  tribes.  In  the  languages 
of  the  neighboring  tribes,  these  Tultecas  ami  Mi.xcohuas  appear  under 
different  names.  We  hud  that  the  Totonacas  called  them  Colhuas, 
probably  from  the  name  of  their  capital  on  the  lake  of  Anahuac,  and 
from  that  still  older  place  Culiacan.  The  Maya  Quiches  speak  of  them 
as  Yaqiiis,  but  their  other  name,  Y'ahoas*'^  (tiiose  who  know),  seems  to 
have  originated  with  the  Chichimecas,  who,  being  their  former  pupils 
and  speaking  the  same  language,  desired  to  express  thereby  the  great 
ascendency  in  art  and  science,  which  their  former  conquerors  had  always 
held  among  them.  It  is  curious  to  note  that  this  epithet  is  analogous  to 
that  which  the  uncivilized  Mayas  gave  to  their  conquerors  and  teachers 
when  they  called  them  Itzaes  (magicians  or  wise  men). 

The  language  which  the  pioneers  of  civilization  had  brought  with  them 
from  their  distant  Fatherland,  seems  to  have  merged  entirely  into  that 
of  tiie  tribes  with  which  they  came  in  contact.  We  can  not  fairly  sup- 
pose that  the  Tultecas  imported  the  Nahoa  language  and  diffused  it 
among  the  Chichimecas,  nor  that  the  Itzaes  imported  the  Maya  language 
into  Yucatan  and  Central  America.  They  must  have  found  these  languages 
in  those  countries  in  which  they  settled  as  conquerors.  A single  American 
Indian  may  have  the  ambition  to  learn  a foreign  language,  but  he  will 
retain  his  mother  tongue,  and  so  will  the  American  Indians  en  masse. 
AVhilst  the  Maya  language  has  made  no  territorial  conquest,  nay  rather 
has  lost  its  ancient  extension,  the  Nahuatl  can  boast  of  having  made  a 
victorious  march  from  the  North  down  to  the  table-lands  of  Mexico  and 


41 


HEAD  OF  A [supposed]  BEARDED  ITZA,  OR  MAGICIAN,  FROM  A COLLECTION 
OF  PHOTOGRAPHS  OF  YUCATAN  SCULPTURE  BY  A.  LE  PLONGEON. 

Tlascala  and  sent  its  branches  farther  South  through  Central  Anaerica. 
This  may  have  been  owing  to  the  uncommon  pliability  of  its  gram- 
matical structure,  and  its  rich  treasury  of  expressive  words.  The 
Spanish  missionaries  learned  it  easily  and  preferred  it.  They,  as 
well  as  various  other  modern  students,  pretend  that  the  Nalioa 
vocabulary  is  intermingled  with  a large  amount  of  Aryan  and  even 
of  Greco-Italian  primitive  roots  and  words,  which  apply  to  important 
ideas  and  inanimate  things,  as  expressions  for  the  forces  of  nature, 
worship,  the  succession  of  the  seasons,  astronomy,  the  family,  the 
parts  of  the  human  body,  household  utensils,  artistic  wares,  the 
animals  common  to  both  hemispheres,  the  words  for  teaching,  braiding, 
buying,  etc.  These  alleged  resemblances,  however,  have  never  been 
investigated  by  any  correct  method ; yet  that  they  should  not  have  been 
detected  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  Mayas,  but  in  that  of  the  Nahoas,  will 
claim  the  attention  of  the  student,  for  if  these  statements  are  correct 
our  Nahoa-Tultecas  may  be  viewed  in  a new  light.  The  reader  will 
remember  that  the  Tultecas  represented  that  portion  of  the  adventurers 
landed  in  Panuco,  who  were  deserted  by  their  leaders  and  left  without 
their  book  of  council,  and  were  thus  compelled  to  re-write  it.  When 
we  consider  that  the  Itza-Maya  calendar  coincides  in  its  minor  divisions 
of  time  with  that  of  the  Tolteca-Nahoa,  but  widely  differs  from  it  in 
its  division  of  the  longer  periods,  this  circumstance,  combined  with 
the  observations  made  with  regard  to  the  linguistic  stock  of  the  Nahoa 
language,  involuntarily  leads  to  the  supposition  of  certain  differences 
4 


42‘ 


either  in  creed  or  in  nationality,  that  may  have  existed  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  invading  party,  and  which  therefore  gave  rise  first  to 
dissensions,  then  to  separations,  and  later  on  to  the  peculiar  dis- 
crepancies observed  between  Maya  and  Tultec  culture.  If  there  is  any 
germ  of  truth  in  those  conjectures,  no  eflbrt  ought  to  be  spared  to 
develope  it.  Each  new  avenue  that  promises  to  lead  in  the  direction  of 
lifting  the  veil  which  shrouds  the  history  of  early  Mexican  colonization 
is  worth  the  labor  of  investigation. 

The  discovery  that  a writer  of  so  original  and  accurate  research  as 
Sahagun  has  enabled  us  to  assign  a definite  locality  to  the  hitherto 
apocryphal  Tultecas,  is  a great  advantage.  After  the  link  had  been 
found  by  which  to  connect  the  first  appearance  of  this  tribe  on  the 
Eastern  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  with  their  later  appearance  and 
operations  at  Culiacan  and  the  Seven  Caverns,  much  of  the  mist  in 
which  the  Tultecas  have  thus  far  been  condemned  to  a shadowy  exist- 
ence has  been  successfully  removed.  We  can  say  the  same  of  the 
Olmecas  and  the  Itzaes.  Beginning  with  their  separation  at  Tainoanchan 
we  have  been  able,  by  consulting  local  tradition,  to  designate  the  various 
localities  along  the  coast  of  Mexico  and  Yucatan  as  far  as  the  Golfo 
Dulce,  which  region  they  had  selected  for  planting  their  colonies. 

With  the  light  of  this  information  the  historical  material  on  early 
Mexican  colonization,  thus  far  apparently  so  loosely  connected  and  so 
full  of  contradictions,  becomes  at  once  more  comprehensible  and  har- 
monious. Many  of  the  details  which  were  not  understood  in  the  state- 
ments of  the  Spanish  chroniclers  can  now  be  assigned  to  their  proper 
place ; but  the  self-imposed  restraints  laid  upon  us  from  the  beginning 
will  not  allow  us  to  undertake  this  further  task. 


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